


12.16.1991

by MelissaBosquez



Series: 12.16 to Infinity and Beyond [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: BAMF Howard Stark, BAMF Maria Stark, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Forgiveness has to be earned, Gen, Howard Stark Lives, Howard Stark was not abusive, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Hydra Drama, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Maria Stark Lives, Maria Stark's Good Parenting, Neglectful and shit at communicating but he's trying to do better, Non Graphic, Not Canon Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not tie in comic canon compliant, Pepperony - Freeform, Protective Pepper Potts, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Vomiting, father and son angst, minor torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 213,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21828559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelissaBosquez/pseuds/MelissaBosquez
Summary: On December 16th, 1991 Howard and Maria Stark were killed in a tragic car accident. Or at least that's what their son and the world is left to believe. 25 years later, Helmut Zemo lures Tony, Steve and Bucky into a Siberian Hydra base to reunite a family...and use The Winter Soldier to destroy it once and for all.ORHoward and Maria were kidnapped by The Winter Soldier and forced to work for Hydra. Through a turn of events they are reunited with Tony, and Howard sets out to make good on the promise he made to himself when he was captured...to begin the long road of making amends with his son.
Relationships: Howard Stark & Tony Stark, Howard Stark/Maria Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, Maria Stark & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Steve Rogers & Howard Stark
Series: 12.16 to Infinity and Beyond [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2058456
Comments: 1254
Kudos: 1374





	1. The Mission

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Takada_Saiko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Takada_Saiko/gifts).



> So, this story is an intense labor of love that I have been working on since the summer. I am 26k into it with no end in sight as of yet. 
> 
> Some additional thoughts/warnings: This is Howard Stark friendly. I know a lot of people hate him and there's comics where the character is abusive to Tony and Maria but that's not this world. I am going singularly off of the Howard Stark presented to us in Agent Carter and the brief glimpses in the MCU. Do I think Howard was a good parent? No. He has definitely made a lot of mistakes, but I don't think he is an irredeemable monster either. The second half of the story will be him trying to fix things with Tony and working through why he behaved so distantly. If that is not your bag then I can't say you'll enjoy this. Please don't come at me with Howard hate.
> 
> Not everything will be exactly like the movies. 
> 
> Also HUGE HUGE thank you to Takada Saiko, my faithful cheerleader, idea giver, all around fantastic motivator. I would have never gotten this far without your help and our mutual appreciation for layered characters. <3

**December 16th, 1991**

“Asset?”

The voice brought him out of his daze, thoughts finally cleared and focused, pain falling away like a mask from someone else’s body. His cold eyes focused on the man before him. 

“Ready to comply,” came the hoarse rasp that always accompanied his awakenings. 

“Mission critical. Search and retrieve. First the serums and then the witnesses. I want them brought in alive.”

He nodded his head affirmatively. This would be an easy task.

“Mission marks?”

The scientist smiled slowly exposing crooked and slightly yellowed teeth. “Howard and Maria Stark.” He waited to see if the name would spark any recognition but the Winter Soldier’s face was expressionless as always. “There is a son… Anthony. We are not concerned about him. Do not engage.”

The assassin nodded in acknowledgement and stood, his restraints having finally been removed. His metal arm felt stiff and he rotated it around until he had full range of motion. He towered before the scientist but the man showed no visible fear aside from the quiet rise and fall of his throat as he gulped back a breath of air. 

“Mission launch time?”

“Tonight. Prepare yourself.”

The soldier nodded. He had his orders and he knew what he must do. Soon Howard and Maria Stark would be nothing but a ghost of a memory to the world. He needed to prepare.

* * *

The short ride from the house and to SHIELD headquarters had mostly been silent and Howard knew enough that it meant he was in trouble. He stole glances across the car to his wife but she remained glued to the window, watching as small flakes of snow began to fall over the road. 

He reached out to take her hand but she didn't let his touch linger. She pulled away and rested her hands back in her lap and out of his reach. 

"Maria…" he sighed. This was not how their vacation was supposed to begin. Of course it also wasn't supposed to involve him transporting a possible trial replication of the super soldier serum either, but he had a job to do too. All he had to do was work now and he'd be free to shoot golf and spend time with his wife by the time their plane landed in the Bahamas. 

"It would be helpful to know what I've done so that I can begin to make amends for it and skip the sulking altogether," he offered in the darkness. It was difficult to discern her features in the dark, the only light coming from the street lamps brief flashes as they drove the winding road. 

Howard had been married long enough however to instantly recognize that particular glare and upturned lip she leveled him with.

It was about the boy. It always seemed to be these days. So, he waited, allowing her to gather her thoughts in the silence. Maria was never one to hold back long. 

He wracked his mind in the meantime of all his interactions with Tony since he'd returned from Europe on Friday. They'd exchanged a couple barbs and sarcastic comments but this was positively tame compared to how they normally got on. Neither of them had even raised their voices once. 

The next bend came across steeper and Howard adjusted his speed in the winter weather. He didn't need them to get into a car accident on top of the already heavy atmosphere he found himself faced with.

"Would it kill you to say something kind to him, just once? It's Christmas," Maria exclaimed as if that was the answer to repairing the chasm between father and son. 

He resisted rolling his eyes knowing it would only make her more upset. Tony had always been a delicate subject between them. He was her baby, 21 years old and throwing toga parties behind their back or not. She always saw him as that wide eyed baby boy she brought screaming into this world. 

Howard used to be envious of their effortless connection. They always understood each other without words and yet Howard for all his genius couldn't even break through the defenses to his son who was so much like himself. He told himself it wasn't from lack of trying but he would be kidding himself. The best he could do was a half drunken confession on an 8mm Tony would probably never see. Or even want to see at this rate. 

He never was able to dwell on their relationship for too long. There was always something else he needed to do for Shield, some other invention that Obadiah was breathing down his neck about to create or a tip about the possible crash site of his long gone best friend, Steve Rogers. Tony fell away to the back burner more and more until Howard blinked and his son no longer wanted his attention. 

"What did you want me to say Maria?" He asked tiredly, the subject of his failed parenting sapping his energy. "Thank you Tony, for not making international headlines for the second time this year, the PR team appreciates the break? He's not a child anymore Maria. He needs to be preparing to be a CEO, not a Playgirl cover model."

That had been a fun and unexpected month of damage control when that surprise magazine cover dropped to newsstands. 

"How many times do I have to tell you that he's acting out for you? He's desperate for your attention Howard, and you're hardly one to be judging lifestyle choices. I seem to remember you not being much different around his age," she reminded him, eyes not leaving his face, daring him to refute her comments. 

"Before I met you perhaps, " he conceded. "Before we lost Cap…" Howard shook his head once to clear it even as his hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. Even now Steve Rogers was a sore subject. A constant reminder of his first greatest failure in life.

Maria softened a little and reached for him, her hand offering his thigh a gentle squeeze. "An I love you goes a long way, you know? It won't fix everything but I refuse to believe that this can't be mended Howard. Talk to him. Really talk to him. He loves you so much and you won't let him show it. God forbid if something were to happen…would you really want that interaction this morning to be the last words you said to him? Think about it."

Howard said nothing, keeping his eyes trained on the road, windshield wipers turned up as the snow fell harder. He really needed to get them to the airfield before they ended up stranded on these lonely back roads. There were no chains on their tires and they'd surely be stuck if it continued sticking to the road. 

He wanted to argue with Maria, tell her she was wrong, but she hadn't been wrong in their marriage yet. Tony was crying out for help, negative attention being better than no attention at all. He should know. He had done the same to his father, for all the good it had done. His father died before Howard could ever make something of himself. 

Christ he needed a drink, but that would have to wait until they made it to their plane. He increased the pressure on the gas slightly, Maria's words filling his mind. 

* * *

The Winter Soldier watched as the Stark's Lincoln passed by the dark bend of road where he lay lurking in patience. As soon as they were around the bend he turned his motorcycle on with a rumble, light shining across the snowy road. 

The cold had never bothered him and he found it easy to increase his speed to match the vehicle in the distance. He trekked safely behind them at first, watching and waiting for the narrow stretch of road he'd make his move on. 

* * *

The car had been silent since Maria's last request. She had resumed looking out the window dutifully until her eyes slowly grew heavier and closed altogether. 

Howard loved watching her as she slept. For a moment all the cares and worries were gone from her face, wrinkles turning to smooth skin. She looked younger. Happier. A disconcerting thought that her happiest moments lie in the hours she was not awake, and Howard knew he had to try harder. If only for her. 

He didn't think much of the vehicle that came up behind them, seemingly out of nowhere. These roads were quiet but well used. He adjusted the rear-view mirror as the vehicle's headlight burned bright into the front end, making it difficult to see.

_Asshole._

The vehicle continued trailing them, but soon picked up the pace, alternating between riding on their bumper and backing off. Howard didn't like this at all. He had one hand on the car phone in the center console when the vehicle made its move. 

It was a motorcycle and it swung around to the passenger side with skill and ease, the slippery roads seemingly having no effect on its capabilities. 

Howard pulled the phone off the hook immediately and held down on the number 1 speed dial to Peggy Carter. 

The man on the motorcycle used that time to attack and brought a glint of metal crashing against the back passenger window. 

The hit was powerful. Howard dropped the receiver to the floor, both hands flying to the wheel trying to steady the already swerving vehicle, but it was no use, the brakes had locked up and were unable to gain traction on the snow covered roads. Howard could only hope to lessen the speed of their impact.

The last thing that went through Howard Stark's mind, as the metal impacted upon the tree trunk, was not the terrified cry of his name from Maria or the loud voice calling his name from the receiver of the dropped phone.

It was an image of his son the last time he saw him, Christmas hat jauntily covering his face, wearing that old Mister Softees ice cream shirt that Howard had always hated but Tony had always loved.

And he thought, maybe an I love you every now and then wouldn't have been so hard. 

Instead, he knew, his son would always wonder if his father had ever cared about him at all. 

* * *

The Winter Soldier watched satisfactorily as the vehicle swerved off to the side of the road and into a tree. A severe impact but not fatal. He passed by them and then looped back around, pulling off the road a safe distance away. 

He detected movement from the front seat as he approached the vehicle, but it was slow and dazed. They were no threat to him as he crashed his metal arm against the trunk and opened it. He pushed aside golf clubs and suitcases of clothing until he found what he was looking for. 

The slightest indentation of fabric revealed the false trunk bottom and directly beneath was a silver suitcase.

He heard a thump from the driver side door and shuffling through the snow but it didn't matter. The suitcase was opened and the serum contents confirmed. The soldier removed the case and gently replaced the false bottom, smoothing the panel out and covering it back up. 

"Maria...help my wife," the dazed voice rang out, not realizing he called out to his enemy. 

The soldier looked the white haired man over finally approaching and grasping the man's head in his palm, forcing him to look up. He was bleeding from a head wound and from some cuts where glass had hit his face but he would be fine. His mission was a success.

* * *

"Please help her…" Howard heaved out to the stranger again, desperately trying to catch his breath in the cold air.

When his eyes were finally able to focus his confusion only grew. 

"Sergeant Barnes?" Impossible. He had been dead for over thirty years now. 

The Winter Soldier froze for the slightest moment, a spark of recognition lighting in the back of his mind as Bucky screamed to break free. Unnerved he shook it off, quashing the memory. 

"Marks ready for transport. The serums are accounted for," he spoke into a small communication device hidden in his sleeve. 

Howard shook his head again trying to swim through his confusion to grasp hold of the situation. 

"The serums?" He looked and saw the silver suitcase in the man's mechanical hand. This was bad. He had to get those back. Get Maria, get the serums and get the hell out of here and to safety. 

"Howard?" He heard his wife’s voice croak miserably from the car.

"Stay," the soldier said releasing his head with a shove, sending his body down into the snow and began making his way around to the passenger side of the car. 

"No. Leave her alone," he called weakly. His ribs screamed in protest as he tried to right his body but he had to protect his wife. And he needed to get the phone. He needed to call Peggy. She would help them. She always did. He turned and began to pull his battered body forward towards the open driver's side door.

Maria Stark sat in the passenger seat and looked up at the winter soldier in terror. She also had bleeding from her head but she seemed more in shock than anything. She screamed as he reached in and pulled her from the car, Howard’s name on her lips as she struggled vainly. 

The soldier came around the car and threw the woman to the ground quickly when he realized Howard had moved from his position and was reaching for something inside. He grabbed him by the back of his jacket and tossed him backwards again before inspecting the inside of the vehicle. 

There on the floor a phone receiver dangled precariously. He grasped it with his metal arm and held it to his ear, listening for anyone on the other end. There was nothing but silence. He lingered a moment longer before placing it back on the hook in the center console. 

A dark van came to a halting stop in the road, several men in dark clothes jumping out and removing what looked to be two large body bags. The ones not busy with the bags rushed across the road and the winter soldier supervised as they grabbed the injured Stark's and hauled them to their feet, leading them towards the vehicle.

Howard Stark struggled against the Hydra agents as they lead him, and the winter soldier delivered a swift blow to his side. The man groaned and was involuntarily compliant after that. 

The pair were loaded into the back of the vehicle, roughly, the soldier monitoring the scene.

"You won't get away with this," Howard mustered through measured breaths, eyes scanning over the familiar man.

"We'll see," came the quiet response before black hoods were shoved over the couple's heads and the door was slammed shut in finality.

* * *

Peggy Carter had been getting ready for bed when her phone began ringing. Only a few people would call her so late at night and only one of them was on a mission of sorts.

"Howard?" 

No sooner had she spoke before she heard the sound of what could only be Maria in the background calling out for Howard before there was a loud crashing noise. 

Peggy nearly dropped the phone the crash was so deafening. 

Instantly she jumped into action, thankful now for the new cordless phone Howard had introduced her to. She moved to her 2nd phone line and dialed into Shield. She called for a trace to be placed on the first line, hazard of the job, to narrow down the pair's location and a team to be on standby as soon as the trace came through. 

Peggy tried calling out to Howard a couple times but it was clear he couldn't hear anything she was saying. She heard some more indistinct chatter in the background and so remained still, listening for anything that could give away the location or what was happening. 

She held her breath when a deep breath came through the receiver, Peggy sat there like that, not daring to make a single noise. Then there was a click and a dial tone as the phone was disconnected. 

Peggy let out a deep breath, anxiety welling within her at whatever had just transpired. She could only hope that they had enough time for the trace.


	2. The Accident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I was going to hold off on posting this until Monday, but I have just had such an incredible response to this story that I couldn't even begin to hope for and I just HAD to post the next chapter. Thank you all so much for your kind comments, I am so glad to see so many enjoying this already and hope you will continue to do so! Things are starting to be explained but we'll get into more detail in the next couple of chapters.
> 
> Also I don't know much about Karpov so I'm just kinda doing what I want with him. lol 
> 
> I'm going to try and update on Mondays starting after the holidays, by the way! So enjoy this chapter and Happy Holidays to you! :D :D :D

Howard tried his best to make a mental map of where they were being taken. He couldn’t see at all through the dark cloth covering his face, but he memorized every turn, every distinguishing noise that he could decipher, that could be the difference between imprisonment and he and Maria escaping. It wasn’t easy with the headache forming between his brows and throughout his head from where his head hit the steering wheel in the crash.

It was still hard to even wrap his mind around it all. That had been Sergeant Barnes for sure. Howard never forgot a face. He had been missing ever since Cap’s last mission when he was dropped from a train, and he looked no older than he had the last time Howard saw him, even though he’d be pushing his sixties by now. Not to mention the strength he now had. That metal arm had held him in place firmly and there was no way he was exerting the full capacity of his strength, even with the blows he had traded with him. 

He thought then to the serums, to the reason that they had seemingly been targeted. Had someone figured out their own brand of the serum and given it to Barnes at some point? It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to assume and he was sure that they only wanted him to produce more now that he had a lead on the formula again. 

His thoughts turned to his son, alone back at the mansion with no clue what had befallen them tonight. Would whoever grabbed them go after Tony too? He didn’t even want to think about it. It made his stomach roll and turn to knots. 

Cautiously he reached out beside him and felt for Maria’s hand. It was shaking as he grasped it in his own, trying his best to soothe her quiet gasps as she cried.

“I’m sorry, Maria,” he whispered to her. She squeezed his hand back taking comfort in his offered strength. He had to get them out of here. He owed it to Maria and he owed it to Tony. It was Howard’s lifework that had put his family in this position and he’d be damned if this was the way it was going to end for them. 

* * *

"Give me some good news," Peggy Carter stated as she snatched the phone from the table. She mounted a foot upon her coffee table as she bent over to lace her shoes.

"It's not good. We were able to get a partial trace on the call, enough to determine the general location," came the voice of one of the junior Shield operatives.

"Okay, and what have we got?" She propped up her other foot to tie it as well.

"It came from Long Island, about twenty miles outside the Stark's private airfield. We called and confirmed with their pilot that Mr. And Mrs. Stark never arrived for their flight," he responded gravely. 

Peggy paused in her movements and loosed a breath. She had suspected as much, but having it confirmed felt so much worse. Now was not the time for emotions though. She had to find out what happened and to do that she needed to be level headed and calm. 

"I'm on my way to investigate. Organize a team for me and have them meet me at the airport." Peggy grabbed her winter coat from her hall closet and slipped it on as she moved briskly through the room. 

"Right away, Director."

The line disconnected and Peggy tossed the phone onto the nearest surface. She grabbed her gun last and clipped it to her belt. She didn't know what had befallen her friends, but she wouldn't be taking any chances.

* * *

It was hours before the vehicle finally came to a stop. The force sent Howard and Maria both forward in their seats as doors were opened and finally a hand gripped the back of Howard's neck and shoved him off the seat, his hand falling from Maria's grasp. Maria followed him moments later, another unknown agent pushing her along, out of the vehicle and onto the snow-covered concrete. 

Maria's heels crunched in the snow as she was lead through the winter night, the chill biting her face through the blackened hood over her head. She couldn't see Howard but she knew he was there by the sound of his and others feet scuffling through the snow. 

Her thoughts not for the first time tonight turned to her son. She wondered what he was doing right now. Did he know about the car accident yet and that his parents had been taken? Or was he out somewhere with his best friend James, completely oblivious to the potential danger he could be in? 

She couldn't even think of it. He would be safe. Peggy Carter would make sure of that. It was probably the first time Maria truly appreciated Howard's connections with Shield, though she had a sinking suspicion that was the exact reason why they had been targeted tonight. Whatever Howard had gone to Shield for tonight, they must have been watching and waiting for. 

The figure leading her around stopped short and tightened his grip on her elbow, pulling her back, causing her to twist in her heel and fall with a small cry of pain. 

"Maria!" Howard called from somewhere ahead of her before being hushed by his handler and a blow of his own. 

"Get up now," the man hissed in her ear and all but yanked her back up, forcing her to stand on her twisted ankle. She balanced herself precariously and gasped as the hood was finally removed from her head to reveal her surroundings.

They were at an airfield, but definitely not their private airfield. The buildings and structures all looked old and in disrepair, like they had been abandoned for decades. The only light came from several light poles scattered around and what looked like runway lights and a lit up aircraft. 

Dread knotted the pit of her stomach. Bad enough to have been in an accident, to be kidnapped, but they planned to fly them somewhere. Another state, another country? The further they were taken away the less likely they would be found. 

Maria's heart beat a mile a minute as she finally focused on the men that they had been brought before. One of them she instantly recognized as the man from the car crash. He held the silver briefcase Howard had retrieved from Shield in his hand and looked straight ahead stoically. No emotion could be found on his face. He didn't seem human to her. The way he looked and moved reminded her of that killer machine from one of Tony's favorite movies. 

Maria assumed that the man beside him was the boss given the smug satisfaction etched into the greasy lines of his face. 

“Welcome Mr. and Mrs. Stark. How kind of you to join us on such short notice.”

The man spoke with a thick german accent and a sneer on his face, coming forward to examine the pair.

“Sorry to interrupt your vacation plans but I’m afraid you will be detained for the foreseeable future.”

“Who the hell are you?” Howard asked and Maria turned to look at him. He stood proud and straight backed despite the situation they were in, mustering every ounce of courage he could.

“I am a great fan of your work Mr. Stark,” he says motioning to the briefcase in the other man’s hand. “I know that you have been working very hard all these years trying to replicate the super soldier serum of Dr. Erskine’s. It was very short sighted of us back then to have killed the good Doctor before finding out his secrets ourselves.”

Howard’s eyes grew wide as the pieces started coming together. “You’re Hydra?”

The man chuckled darkly. “Well, I am not all of Hydra but yes, of course. You didn’t really think we were all gone just because we lost Johann Schmidt do you? We were weakened, sure, but we stuck low to the ground and now have our hands in a little of everything. Time is one of our greatest enemies Stark. It lets us fall into a state of complacency. We get lazy and forget. That is when the Hydra strikes. Vasily Karpov at your service.”

He moved from standing in front of Howard over towards Maria and grabbed ahold of her hand, placing a kiss to it. Maria could feel her skin crawling in disgust but she was still being held tightly by the man who dragged her out here and couldn’t easily move.

“It is especially a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Stark. I hope to get the chance to know you better soon.”

A wave of nausea rolled through her body at the implication the man was giving. She didn’t know how much of it was to piss Howard off and unnerve them both or if it may be entirely real. She didn’t know the full details of Howard’s work with Shield but she knew enough to know that Hydra was the scum of the earth. 

“Don’t you lay a fucking hand on her you bastard,” Howard stepped forward and was immediately yanked back. Karpov nodded at the man holding him and he delivered a severe punch to his abdomen, aggravating wounds still raw from the wreck. Maria winced as Howard fell to his knees sputtering.

“Please do not speak out of turn. I do not wish to cause you pain but will not hesitate to enforce our rules. You have a choice to make Mr. Stark.” Karpov paced back towards Howard as he righted himself but remained on his knees.

“Let me guess. Reproduce the serum for you?”

“An astute observation. While I’ve no doubts to being able to reverse engineer your formula eventually, good help is so hard to find these days, especially working in such a remote location as we will be. This formula is untested as of yet, yes?”

Howard didn’t respond and Karpov nodded his head to the lackey holding him up. The man dealt him another crushing blow. Howard bit back a groan not wanting to give these men any further satisfaction. The first blow had caught him off guard. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

“I will assume that’s a yes then. We want you with us when we administer the serum to our test subjects. New products tend to have a few bugs in the beginning, you know. Don’t pretend like you too are not excited to see the results of your life’s work,” he continued kneeling down in front of Howard. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. So, what do you say?”

Howard looked him in the eye with such coldness and disdain even Maria felt a shiver go down her spine. 

“I refuse.”

Karpov smirked like he knew the answer he would get all along. “And that is why I brought insurance.”

He turned his sneer back towards Maria and she could see Howard’s resolve beginning to fade as the implications sunk in.

Of course she would be used as a tool to keep Howard in his place. Why else would they have brought her along when she knew next to nothing of the complexities of Howard’s work? She may not be an engineer or a scientist but she certainly was no one’s bargaining chip or damsel in distress either. She was Maria Carbonell-Stark and one thing that she never had liked was a bully.

“Don’t give in to him, Howard. I’m not afraid of him.”

She was proud of how steady her voice sounded in spite of everything. Howard continued to look worried as he turned to her but she could also see a glimmer of pride. She and Howard had been through many things in their marriage though the stakes had never been higher than they are now. This too would pass, one way or another, and she wouldn’t go through it without putting up a fight.

“How noble,” came Karpov’s sarcastic response. “We shall test that resoluteness in the days to come, don’t you worry.”

“You won’t get what you want,” she continued. “Men like you never do. No matter what happens to us, I can rest easy in that small comfort at least.”

“Maria…” Howard’s voice cautioned.

Karpov looked between the pair and laughed, a loud bellowing sound, echoing off the empty hangers around them.

“You’re wife has quite a mouth on her.” Karpov rose from his spot and walked back towards Maria with purpose. He gripped her beneath her chin, holding her face in place. With her arms held in place by the unseen lackey behind her and Karpov’s punishing grip on her chin, Maria resorted to tactics she hadn’t used since her older cousin had taught her one summer as a teenager. 

She hawked back and spit in his face, inwardly proud when it directly got him in the eye. He pushed off her face disgustedly, wiping away the saliva furiously. If cousin Matteo could see her now, he’d probably be horrified at the situation, but proud of her form at least. Had her ankle not been throbbing she would have went for a more unpleasant tactic, introducing the man intimately to her Louboutin’s.

Maria wasn’t naive enough to believe the tactic would go without its punishment but the backhand still caught her off guard as she stumbled back from the force. Her cheek stung and she was sure that there would probably be a bruise. She dimly registered Howard’s shouts in the background.

“A warning,” Karpov whispered dangerously, his hand coming back to her face. “We have a long flight ahead of us. It should allow plenty of time to decide whether your stay with Hydra is comfortable or not. If you both value your lives so little, perhaps we will take the question to your son, Anthony.”

Maria’s eyes grew wide as she turned back to face the man. 

“Yes, we did not forget about him. Maybe think twice before being a hero then, huh?” He gazed into her eyes coldly for a moment longer before jerking his head towards the plane. “Load them up.”

Maria was in too much shock to do anything but comply as they were both led onto the aircraft, the man with the metal arm rounding out the group. Howard was shoved into the seat beside her and the metal armed man instructed them to buckle up before taking a seat behind them.

“Are you okay?” Howard whispered, bringing his hand up gently to the bruise forming across her cheek. 

She nodded slowly. 

“I’m going to fix this.”

“He threatened Tony.”

“I know.” His voice was stricken. Maria curled her hand around his. 

“We’ll figure it out. Together,” she emphasized.

Howard let a small smile form across his face, his pride and admiration for this woman shining through. Over twenty years together and she continued to surprise him in new ways. 

“Together."

* * *

Peggy looked over the smoking wreckage of her longest friends vehicle one more time. Her fellow Shield agents combed the surrounding area looking for any kind of clues as to what really happened here tonight. It was not as cut and dry as it seemed. The rear passenger window glass was splintered, the serums missing, and the bodies of her oldest friend and his wife in the front seat.

She would need to call the police soon. She hated to even involve them at all but Howard and Maria Stark were not just agents on a mission gone wrong, they were public figures. As such Shield couldn’t hide their deaths forever. They needed to work in cooperation for the time being. 

And Tony. She was going to need to call her godson and explain to him what had happened. He didn’t know about Shield and his father’s work outside of Stark Industries, Howard had wanted it like that. Less chance for Tony to be subjected to any further dangers if he had no knowledge of it. Looking over the wreckage she thinks that may have been the only thing that saved his life tonight. She already sent her best agent, Nick Fury out to watch the Stark mansion and make sure the boy came to no harm and she knew he would be protected. Fury would always look out for him from afar for now on. Howard would have wanted him safe.

“Director, we may be in luck,” one of her team called out and broke her from her gaze.

“What is it?”

The agent pointed to a light pole about twenty yards from the accident. At the top, towards the side was a small gray box. “Security cam or traffic monitor. Has an almost perfect view of the accident.”

“We need to get that footage before the police arrive. Whatever happened here was obviously intentional, but we have to control the narrative for now. Make it happen.”

The odds that whoever orchestrated the accident hadn’t known about the camera were slim so she knew it would be awhile before they could extract what was needed. She could wait. As angry and upset as she was, there was one thing that Peggy had and that was infinite patience. She would track down those responsible and she’d make sure that they paid. 

Right now though she had another important task to do. She sighed and headed back to her car and the portable telephone inside. It was large, heavy and ugly, but her godson insisted it would be the way of the future. She didn’t doubt him. He had always been a bit of a futurist, his mind ten steps ahead of everyone else’s, always looking for ways to build and improve.

And now she had to shatter a piece of that future. 

* * *

The sharp ring of the telephone echoed throughout the hallway of the large empty mansion. All the staff had been sent home by Tony once the elder Starks had left for their vacation, even Jarvis. A door opened from the left and laughter spilled into the hallway as the young man slowly emerged. 

"Hang on Rhodey, let me grab this real quick. I swear if it's mom…" Tony sighed approaching the phone and snatching up the receiver with one hand and pinching his nose with the other, his lips curled haughtily. "Stark residence, this is the butler speaking."

"Tony…" came the delicate voice on the other line. 

Tony immediately dropped the act and smiled. "Oh hey, Aunt Peg. Mom already making you check up on me? I'm 21 now y'know, I won't die being left home alone for a week."

"Tony...Tony are you alone?" 

Peggy didn't even acknowledge any of her godsons rambling and it was that moment Tony knew something was wrong. Aunt Peggy always joked around with him. 

"Uhh, no. Well, Rhodey is here with me, but that’s it...is everything alright? What happened?" 

The line was quiet for a moment and Tony wondered briefly if they'd been disconnected. The line was a little staticy and her lilting accent sounded far away.

"Aunt Peg?"

"Tony, there's been an accident…"

Tony's eyes narrowed and he felt himself gripping the phone tighter, heart beating faster in his chest. . "O-Okay. What kind of an accident?"

"Your parents vehicle was involved in an accident on the way to the airport. We think the car hit some black ice and they were going too fast to stop…"

"Tones?" Rhodey called, coming through the doorway concern filling his features.

Tony shook his head and waved him back, turning away from his friend. "Are they okay?" He squeaked out. His palms were sweaty and his chest felt so tight he could barely breathe. He didn't want Rhodey to see him like this. 

"I'm so sorry sweetheart. They're both gone."

He would always remember the way that moment felt when all the air left his chest and he felt like he was suffocating, his lungs unable to draw air into his body as his brain tried and failed to process the news that his parents were dead. 

"No...no I just saw them, Aunt Peg. They were here a few hours ago. There's some kind of mistake. " 

A tear dropped from his face, and when did he start crying? He swiped furiously at the unwanted show of emotion and nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt Rhodey's strong arm clasp his shoulder. He tried to shrug him away but Rhodey held firm. 

"Tony...I saw them for myself. I'm sure, darling. Listen I'm on my way over…" Peggy continued but anything else she had to say was lost to Tony as he dropped the phone to the floor. 

It landed with a clatter and echoed throughout the hallway. 

"Tony, man, talk to me," Rhodey said turning the smaller man around to face him.

Tony's eyes were focused on the ground where he had dropped the phone. He chewed the bottom of his lip to keep from showing the tremble as he tried to swallow back his emotions. 

"I'm fine, honeybear, I just don’t want to talk about it right now" he sniffed and wiped his eyes again before plastering what Rhodey liked to call his best media smile, all pearly whites and no emotion. "What do you say we crack open my Dad's vintage liquor set? I don't think he'll mind anymore."

Rhodey watched helplessly as his friend pushed passed him without a second glance. Instead of going after Tony he grabbed the receiver, needing answers now. “This is James Rhodes, what the hell is going on?”

The sound of an angry yell and breaking glass registered distantly as the voice on the other end filled him in on the horrors of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always feel free to leave your thoughts, comments, reactions. I literally live for it and it motivates me exponentially. You can also flail with me on tumblr as the herothechampiontheinquisitor :D


	3. The Small Details

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying the holidays! As you have all been exceptional people this year I bring you a 9k gift of a chapter. :D I didn't mean to make it so big but there was no better place to cut this off and the first section actually should have ended the last chapter but I fudged it so have some extra content! :D
> 
> Disclaimer that while I did google search the hell out of details for the medical and legal bits of this chapter I am by no means an expert and am going off of personal accounts and media renditions, so forgive any errors. 
> 
> And from personal experience, when someone passes I always seem to remember the weirdest smallest details that no one else would.

Howard isn’t sure how much time has passed from the initial abduction until the time that he and Maria are brought to their final destination. The plane ride lasts for hours, uncomfortable silence filled with intermittent laughs from Karpov and the other Hydra members. Barnes remains motionless and quiet behind them, almost like he is in some sort of trance. Howard doesn’t know what to make of his demeanor or what had happened to him in the years that he had been lost, but it is clear that he has no memory of having ever known Howard, and it’s hard to reconcile the Bucky of the past being so exuberant over his flying car prototype and this stone cold monster.

They keep the shades of the windows shut and when they finally descend the black bags are once again thrown over their heads. Barnes pulls Maria away from where she was asleep on his shoulder and pushes her forward once the mask is in place and then reaches for him to do the same. It’s clear that it is daytime for the small bit of light that penetrates the darkness but he is unable to discern anything else aside from the cold. It’s different from the New York winter they just left. This air is biting and painful when the wind blows and he is woefully under dressed for the temperature. Unsurprisingly his captors don’t seem to care

It does little to help define their location either. It could be Alaska, Canada, Russia. Hell they could be in Antartica for all he knew. 

They transfer to another vehicle and the small amount of heat that is turned on is barely enough to help combat the numbness of his feet. Maria shivers beside him and he remembers she was wearing even less warm clothes than he was. He doubts they’d let him remove his jacket so he settles for holding her hands between his and running his palms back and forth over them to bring the warmth back.

Once more they transfer vehicles and Howard is beginning to suspect it is done more to disorient them further than actual need. They are climbing up what feels like a mountain though., ears popping with the altitude change. The driver is slow and cautious, braking often, though more than once the vehicle slides. Karpov wasn’t kidding when he said a remote location.

If Howard thought the air was biting before, it is even worse at the top of their destination. They are moved quickly, loud metal noise screeching as doors were torn open and they are pushed inside with their detail. He actually sighs in relief when warm air finally falls over his body 

“Take them to our “guest” quarters. Feed them. We need Stark at his best before our first trial,” he hears Karpov speak from a distance and then they are lead away, down a corridor. 

He counts how many steps it takes from the entrance to the next corridor where they make a left and then a right before another door is opened and he and Maria are both pushed inside, the hoods removed from their heads at last.

He blinks against the bright fluorescent lights and barely catches a glimpse of the corridor before the door is shut, the only view to the world a small square window. The room is small but there is a bed at least, though the mattress is thin and old. It reminds him of the kind they had at Camp Lehigh. He had never slept on them of course but he recognized the military issue. 

“What are you going to do?” Maria asks coming up behind him and clutching his elbow. She is all business and he can’t help but admire her composure further. The bruising on her face looks harsher under the bright lights of the cell and he brushes a finger across it and sighs, moving towards the hard plastic bed. 

“I’m going to help them with the serum.” He had had plenty of time to think about it during their journey and they didn’t exactly have much of a choice in the matter, that was abundantly clear.

“You can’t just give them what they want Howard.”

“You know as well as I do that I have to. There’s no other choice. If they can get to us then they can get to Tony too. He doesn’t deserve to be brought into another one of my messes. If something happened to him…” he shook his head and trailed off. Maria joined him and kicked off her heels running a hand along her sore ankle.

“Let me,” Howard said motioning to the joint. She brought her leg up to him and gently he massaged the area, trying to keep his anger in check at the thought of how banged up his wife already was. He was going to make sure every single one of these Hydra scum was paid back in spades.

Maria watched his face the entire time, eyes unmoving. She flinched once or twice over an especially tender spot but the weight of her gaze had him turning to face her.

“What is your real plan?”

He scoffed. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I have been married to you long enough that I know that you are up to something. You seem to be giving in awfully easy.”

“They could kill you. They could kill our son.”

“They could kill us anyways. Today, tomorrow, a month from now, a year. The Howard Stark I know wouldn’t give up without a fight. Especially when the odds seem insurmountable.”

He couldn’t hide his smirk fast enough and she jerked her leg away, sitting forward until their foreheads were nearly touching. “I’m not letting you do this alone and you’re kinda stuck with me anyways. You may as well let me in on the secret. What exactly are you planning?”

“Exactly what I said,” he spoke softly not sure whether the room could be bugged or not. “I am going to do what they want. They want the serum fixed? I’ll fix it. They want weapons? I’ll build them.” He winked at her and kissed her forehead, bringing her close to his chest.

He meant what he said. Hydra would get their formula or weapons or whatever else they needed from him. And like a ticking time bomb he would make sure that every last bit exploded in their face. He would find a way to get them out of this mess even if it killed him, though it would take a lot more than a car wreck and some cheap body shots to do so. 

After all, Stark men were made out of iron.

* * *

"C'mon, man. You gotta get up. Ms. Carter already called and said she'd be here within the hour and that was an hour ago. Do you really want her seeing you like this?"

Tony groaned in response and rolled over, facing away from where the sunlight was beating into the room. He didn't bother trying to tell Rhodey that Peggy had definitely seen him much worse. She had always been the one to bail him out of his problems before Rhodey came into his life. 

His head was killing him, throbbing in time with every breath and every beat of his heart. Between that and the way just the thought of opening his eyes or moving was enough to send his stomach turning, he didn't plan on doing anything. 

"Tones…" Rhodey spoke softly coming to kneel beside where Tony lay. He placed a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder, but Tony brushed him off just as quick. 

"I know what you said Rhodey, and I don't care. I'm not going. I can't." Tony hardly recognized his own voice it was so hoarse. He hazarded to open a single eye now that he was turned away from the sun. From the brief fuzzy glance he could discern that he was miraculously in his own bed. When did he end up in his bed last night? He couldn't remember. Everything was a blank after that call.

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't make you. I'd let you lay here for however long you needed, but Tones, what's happening now is unfortunately bigger than your grief. There's a lot of legal bullshit and red tape that has to be sifted through and this is one of those things that has to be done." 

Rhodey was right. Tony knew he was. Death wasn't just death for the Stark family. There were assets and money and companies riding on the existence of these people, or at this point, the identification. Everything was in limbo until the formal ID was made, and then their respective wills and plans carried out. But he couldn't do it. Not right now when his grief was so fresh and new. Not when he felt like he couldn't breathe anytime his thoughts strayed towards this new reality. 

"Obie can do it. He saw more of my father than I ever did, anyway." He wasn’t surprised that even in death his bitterness could not be contained. 

Rhodey wanted to say more but a soft knock at the door drew his attention. Tony pulled the covers back up over his head, resolute in his stance. He listened to Rhodey's footsteps as he crossed the room to the door, but had to strain to hear the low murmur of voices. He immediately recognized the soft lilting accent of his Aunt Peggy. 

"Sorry, to finally meet you under these circumstances, James. I've heard a lot about you. Sounds like you're the voice of reason." 

"Rhodey, is fine ma'am. And thank you, I try to be, but it doesn't seem to be helping now."

"Don't take it personally. I'm not sure if there is anything that can help him at this moment. I hate to even make him do this, but it has to be done. "

"He mentioned Mr. Stane. Would he be able to make the ID in his place?"

"Technically, yes, but he is on a business trip. He's been notified of the situation but will be unable to return for several days."

"I don't like it."

"Neither do I, but it's important to see this through. We're all here for him."

Tony stopped listening at that point. If Obadiah couldn't be bothered then neither could he. Except, his mind kept helpfully supplying, Obadiah wasn't their son. This wasn't Obie's responsibility, as much as Tony would rather pass it off to him. This was his time, his moment. The day that his father had always drilled into his brain was finally here, where he would have to step up and take control of his life and now his company. How was he supposed to do that when he couldn't even find the strength to get up out of bed?

"Hello again, Ms. Carter."

Tony's mind was pulled back towards the conversation at the door as another familiar voice joined the group.

"Mr. Jarvis," came Peggy's solemn reply.

"If I may?" 

Tony wasn't sure what the beloved butler's request was, but shortly after his door slowly squeaked open further and then was gently closed. His throat constricted tightly as he suddenly found himself holding back tears as Jarvis’ feet padded lightly across the carpet towards him. 

The bed dipped lightly near his legs and a strong arm clasped his turned shoulder. Jarvis had always been a safe place for Tony to land when he felt his emotions spiralling and today was no different. Without any words having even been spoken the dam broke and Tony let loose the tears that he'd been trying to hide, the pain that he had tried to numb away the night before with alcohol and indifference. 

Jarvis said nothing as he cried, just simply was there for Tony. He had always been able to disarm Tony and tear down his walls no matter how much he tried to hide, no matter how old he was or how long he'd been away, Jarvis had always been that constant support. 

When the sobs slowly began to subside, Tony found his head pounding worse than before. The alcohol, tears and stress had done a number on him and he knew he'd need to get some Tylenol soon if he wanted to even think of functioning again. He sniffed and slowly uncovered his head from his blanket. Jarvis silently offered him a handkerchief and so he wiped away the tear tracks from his eyes and cleaned his nose. 

"I can't do it, Jarvis." Tony couldn't look at the man. Jarvis had seen him cry before many times, but he had never been able to shake away the feeling of embarrassment after. He kept his red rimmed eyes concentrated on the ground as he gingerly sat up beside him. 

"You can, sir. And you must." His voice was always so gentle sounding but there was also a quiet strength that Tony recognized.

"You don't understand, Jarvis," he replied shaking his head slowly, a hand coming up to run through his short hair, making it stick up more than it already was. "I didn't even say goodbye. I let Howard get to me with his stupid comments and I was just so mad… I just ignored them. I didn't even tell Mom, that I love...loved her. What kind of a son does that make me?"

Jarvis exhaled quietly and turned to Tony with a sad smile. "I cannot claim to have all the answers that you seek, sir. It is human nature to regret. Regret is an unavoidable result of any kind of loss. You cannot change the past, but you can control your actions in the future. Above all, know that they know how you felt, and they felt the same way in return.”

Tony snorted in disdain at Jarvis’ last words. He knew the man was trying to help him, and he knew better than most the complicated relationships in the Stark family, but he couldn’t possibly be implying that Tony knew that his father had cared for him. His father had never mustered an I love you that Tony could remember. The closest he had gotten would be a pat on the back or squeeze of the shoulder like when he’d created DUM-E or graduated from MIT. If he was particularly lucky and in public Howard might even pull him into a half embrace for the cameras, but in the daily grind of life the only emotion he seemed to elicit from Howard was contempt. 

“C’mon, Jarvis. We all know that my father was always happiest when I wasn’t around. There’s no need to fill me with platitudes now, I know where I stood with him and it was nowhere near the bar that was set by Steve Rogers. No, it’s not him that I regret, it was my mother. She didn’t deserve my indifference.” Unconsciously, he brought his hand to rub against his cheek where he could still feel his mother’s lips upon his skin. 

“Then do it for her, sir, if for no one else.” 

Jarvis had him there. 

“How is it that you have always been able to get me to do everything that I don’t want to?” Tony nudged the older man with his elbow and looked to him expectantly. 

Jarvis just smiled back at him easily. “It’s the accent I think. It makes people trust me.”

“If I’d had your voice in my ear at MIT I think I would have saved Rhodey some premature gray hairs. You’re very persuasive, J.”

A comfortable silence fell between them and Tony could feel some of the grief that had suffocated him begin to marginally recede, at least enough to function. Jarvis never judged him or tried to rush him. He had always let Tony operate at his own pace, just with a nudge in the right direction from time to time. In many ways Jarvis had been more of a father to him than Howard had, and Tony knew that he would need to lean heavily on the man in order to get through the days to come.

With a short burst of energy, Tony rose from the bed and began to peel away the booze soaked clothing as he made his way to the ensuite, leaving Jarvis to his own devices. He tried not to linger on his haggard appearance in the oversized bathroom mirror and slid into the shower, turning the water to the hottest setting that he could stand. 

He could do this. He could make it through this day and do what was needed and expected of him. He was a Stark for christ sake. Stark men were made of iron, his father always said. Tony always felt that it was a bullshit excuse for his father to not have to show any emotions, but maybe that was exactly what he needed right now. He needed to protect himself, hide his emotions behind a wall of iron so that he could complete the hard tasks and move on.

If he cried one last time while he stood under the hot spray, no one would ever know. 

By the time he stepped out of the shower the water had gone cold and Jarvis was no longer waiting in the bedroom, but a dark suit had been laid out in his place. He dressed quickly and ran a comb through his hair. This time when he looked in the mirror he was more put together than before. The red eyes he could hide behind a pair of his sunglasses. The stubble would have to stay though. Tony didn’t trust his shaky hands to not make chop work of his face. Maybe he would even grow it out a little. His mother always had said it made him look older, more distinguished. If he was going to be taking over the business now he would need to look the part.

He rifled through a drawer for his darkest pair of shades and put on one of his watches and MIT ring. A glance in the mirror confirmed he finally looked camera ready for the public, or as close as he would get, before finally emerging into the hall. Peggy and Jarvis were nowhere to be seen but Rhodey had stood ever vigilant at the other side of the door. He seemed startled by Tony’s sudden appearance but recovered quickly and wordlessly offered up a water bottle and two pills for the hangover that still clawed at the edge of his mind.

“Thanks,” Tony said and downed both pills at once.

“Tones…” Rhodey started again in that voice that meant that he was either going to offer some kind of apology or even worse pity and Tony couldn’t bear to have to hear it all over again from his best friend.

Tony flipped the sunglasses onto his face and headed down the hall. “We’re gonna be late. Waiting on you now, Rhodey-bear.”

Rhodey sighed and shook his head but complied without further comment.

* * *

The drive to the hospital was unnervingly silent. Jarvis and Peggy were in the front seat of the car, Jarvis acting as the driver, while Rhodey and Tony were left in the backseat, the latter staring out the window, unnaturally still. Rhodey thought Tony could almost pass for being asleep if not for the white knuckled fist at his side.

Rhodey continued to watch Tony out of the corner of his eye concerned about his mental health. Tony had barely said a word to him about the phone call from Ms.Carter, leaving Rhodey to have to piece most of it together in between policing Tony's alcohol consumption. Icy conditions, inability to stop, no survivors, she had said when he picked up the phone. The pain had been plain to see even as Tony recklessly downed one glass of vintage scotch after the next. 

It was not the start to his Christmas leave that he had imagined.

He knew his friend had a complicated relationship with his parents, Howard especially. Their time together at MIT was littered with broken promises and missed visits from the elusive inventor. Tony told him all about his father's obsession with finding Captain America and how he had always ranked second to a ghost. Not much had improved since graduation, their distant relationship continuing, from what Rhodey could discern.

Distance didn't always equal feelings though. Tony had always had a big heart and he knew Tony loved Howard. Everything he did, from his groundbreaking robotics work to his wild child image was all a design to grasp his father's attention, to get him to care. Now he had lost the chance to ever close that gap, to ever get any sense of closure.

The loss of his mother was even more devastating because they _had_ been close. Not to mention everybody loved Maria Stark. She was a pillar to her community with her many charitable works and campaigns. 

Rhodey had met Maria Stark more times than he had Howard. The first being on summer break after Tony's first year at MIT. He flew Rhodey out from Philly for a couple of weeks in July and surprisingly Maria was there waiting with Tony at the airport, overjoyed to meet the person her son “could never stop talking about.”

Rhodey had gotten the feeling over those few weeks that it was highly unusual for Tony to have any kind of friend, let alone near enough to his peer group, come for a visit. Maria stealthily watched their interactions that summer always with something akin to relief radiating from her features. 

He supposed he could understand that. From what he had learned,Tony had always been an outsider, his intelligence and age pushing him outside of the normal circles. Before when Tony Stark had “made friends” they were always future business contacts or people who wanted something from him. 

Rhodey would never forget the day that he went home and Maria had pulled him into a fierce hug, the scent of her expensive perfume pervading the air around him and actually thanked him for being Tony’s friend. Thanked him. For being a decent human being and taking care of this brilliant, scrawny kid who drank too much coffee and didn’t get enough sleep, always working on the next big idea, always trying to prove himself. It cemented his need and desire to want to protect Tony from the world.

After that summer he and Maria had a silent understanding whenever they met. She didn’t have to thank him anymore, he already knew how she felt, but she always greeted him with a hug and a smile. 

Yesterday he had missed seeing her by mere minutes and now he was supporting his friend in the identification of her body. Life was fucking crazy.

Rhodey leaned across the seat to where Tony’s fist was still clenched at his side. He placed his hand overtop Tony’s and squeezed it in support. He jumped a little from the unexpected contact and eyed where Rhodey’s MIT ring had come into contact with his own. He relaxed his grip and held on to Rhodey’s hand instead before resuming his blank gaze out the window of the car.

Rhodey pretended not to notice the silent tears that escaped from behind the dark sunglasses.

* * *

"You have gotta be shitting me."

Tony half stood up from his seat and leaned in between the front, wedged between Jarvis and Peggy. He flipped his sunglasses up on his forehead for the first time since putting them on that morning and simply watched the crowd milling about the entrance before them.

The scene outside of the hospital could only be described as a media circus. News vans and hungry reporters were perched outside of the hospital entrance, waiting to swoop down presumably upon Tony or any other recognizable Stark Industries representative. 

They hadn't spotted the vehicle yet. Jarvis elected upon their most discreet vehicle in the Stark fleet and had stopped when he noticed the media teaming at the door, opting to turn down a parking aisle instead.

"I'd like to know who tipped those vultures off already," Peggy muttered under her breath.

Tony flopped back in his seat wearily, sliding the shades back down. 

"Is there a back entrance or something?" Rhodey asked. 

"This _is_ the back entrance. They assured me this morning that this wouldn't be an issue but obviously their security is a little lax." 

"Maybe we can come back, then?" Jarvis added, glancing in the rear view to gauge Tony's reaction.

"No. Forget it," Tony huffed and leaned forward and unlocked the door. "If I leave, I'm not coming back." He swung open the car door without another thought, ignoring the shouts from the car to get back inside. 

Rhodey was the next to jump out and grabbed a hold of Tony's arm with a firm grip. 

"You're not going to do this alone, Tones. "

Tony regarded him briefly and allowed Rhodey to take control, gently pulling him forward and tucking him into his side before pressing on, Jarvis and Peggy scrambling behind them.

It didn’t take long until they were spotted by the crowd. A voice elevated over the chatter and murmur of the ground “It’s Tony Stark!” Heads turned and cigarette butts were hastily quashed as the crowd assembled their microphones and cameras. 

Tony and Rhodey walked faster as the crowd began to descend all around them. Cameras flashed and shuttered around them and everyone started talking over themselves at once.

_“Tony, is it true that your parents were involved in a car accident?”_

_“Is Howard Stark in a coma?”_

_“Are Mr. and Mrs. Stark dead?”_

_“What does this mean for Stark Industries?”_

_“Is it true that Howard Stark was driving drunk?”_

That last question made Tony stop short and the crowd stumbled and bumped against each other at the sudden change. Rhodey pushed a protective hand out, brushing back microphones and reporters that got too close.

“C’mon man, don’t let them get to you,” he cautioned. 

Tony blatantly ignored him and leveled a glare at the offender of the last question. The reporter to his credit, didn’t wither back at all, only pushed his cassette recorder more adamantly towards Tony’s mouth, ready to do whatever it took to get the sound bite or quote for the evening news. The crowd around them fell silent.

Tony could feel the blood rushing to his ears, his heartbeat pounding angrily against his chest, watching these bottom feeders clamoring for their story. Tony had always had a love hate relationship with the press. Most days he could kick the charm up to eleven and have them eating out of the palm of his hand, smooth words and half truths grazing across the surface of their questioning, never realizing he’d left them with nothing of substance until he was long gone. 

It was times like these though, where they purposefully sought to exploit him for the sensationalism that his blood boiled. It was the same feeling when press cornered him coming out of bars or clubs, hoping to catch him stumbling and slurring, usually complete with an unflattering photo or even when going so far as to stalk him when he was on campus at MIT, just trying to be normal for once. This though...this was crossing the fucking line.

“My father is many things. An inventor, a war hero, a leader of his industry and a decent man. One thing he is not is stupid, and that’s exactly what you’re implying when you asked that question.”

Peggy and Jarvis finally pushed their way through the crowd, Peggy trying to pull his shoulder to keep on moving, but Tony shrugged her off easily.

“Now me on the other hand? I’m an asshole,” he said and snatched the recorder from the reporters hand. The man protested but Tony had already slammed it to the ground in front of him, the plastic cracking and splintering apart. He gave it a stomp for good measure and this time Rhodey and Peggy were both pulling him backwards. He stepped back with them a grimace settled on his face. “Bill me.”

The crowd seemed to come back alive at then and continued following him to the door where they were finally cut off by the hospital security pushing them back out the door.

“Bit late for that, yeah?” Peggy questioned as they entered the lobby.

A hospital official offered apologies and platitudes the entire way towards the elevators that would bring them down to the morgue. Peggy argued back with the man but Tony didn’t hear much of the conversation. The pounding in his ears had been replaced by a distant ringing and he felt like he was walking through a haze, his body moving of its own accord. 

He shouldn’t have let the reporter get to him but the attack was so personal. His father could be a grade A asshole, and he did enjoy a drink when he was out or working privately from his study at home, but even though Tony was unsure where his father stood when it came to himself, he could unquestionably say that Howard loved his mother. He wasn’t big on grand public gestures but he showed his love in other ways. A smile when he thought no one was looking, a gentle touch to the small of her back, the look of utter contentment when she played piano. The idea that he would have ever put her in such reckless danger was like a slap in the face. He wasn’t going to let that type of slander take root now.

Rhodey motioned towards his sunglasses once they got into the elevator, but Tony had no intention of removing them anytime soon, and Rhodey didn’t press any further. Jarvis flanked his other side and he adjusted Tony’s tie where it had come loose before the elevator dinged and the doors opened. 

They were lead down a mostly empty corridor before the hospital official showed them through to what looked like an office space or conference room. Like most rooms in the hospital, it was informal and clinical, the same generic paintings hung on the walls and several uncomfortable looking chairs surrounded a small table. A connecting door to the next room stood out heavy and somber against the white walls.

The police chief was waiting for them inside and Tony’s breath caught as he noticed he wasn’t alone. 

Obadiah Stane had always been an impressive figure, his towering height and well cut suits lending themselves to enhance the aura of power that surrounded the man. He looked to have been in conversation with the chief when they entered the room, but immediately gave full attention to the group when they entered.

“Tony!”

“Obie?” 

Tony walked further into the room and Obadiah stepped forward opening his arms to him. Without hesitation Tony closed the gap and let himself be comforted by the man’s presence. Obie clapped him on the back a couple of times and pulled back, using a hand to grab the glasses off his face and tuck them into Tony’s breast pocket.

“What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t able to make it back?”

“Yes, so did I.” Peggy looked the older man up and down, her eyes narrowed and voice hedged with apprehension at his sudden appearance.

Obadiah gave nothing away but met her eyes briefly before turning his attention back to Tony and offering a rueful smile.

“I thought I wouldn’t be able to make it, but I was able to delay for awhile given the circumstances. I couldn’t leave you here to deal with this on your own now could I?”

Tony wasn’t alone but he appreciated the sentiment anyways. The more people that he had in his corner now, the easier he hoped, it would be to get through this day especially. 

Obie wrapped a large arm around his shoulder and directed his attention to the man beside him. He was a medium built man, probably in his late forties, touches of gray sprinkling his brown hair at his temples and mustache, but he had kind eyes and looked at Tony with genuine sympathy. 

“Tony this is Chief Sanders with the Long Island police. He’s here to talk to you about what happened and what is needed going forward.”

“Sorry, to meet you under these circumstances, sir,” Sanders said reaching for Tony’s hand and offering a firm shake. He motioned for the group to sit down at the table and retrieved a manila folder from his briefcase.

Obie led him to sit in the chair at the middle of the table across from Sanders and collapsed into the chair to his right, Peggy and Rhodey joining him at his left. Jarvis declined and stood stoically at the door.

“Before we continue I just need your verbal confirmation that it is safe to disclose the details of the incident with all present in the room.”

Tony glanced briefly at those that surrounded him that made up what was left of his makeshift family and easily voiced his approval. The chief nodded and opened up the file before him that contained pictures and statements.

“On December 16th at approximately 11:37pm a call came in to 911 about a car that had veered off the road and hit a tree not far from the Stark Industries private airfield in Long Island. The two passengers were both found to be deceased assumingly from the impact of the accident,” Sanders pulled a colorized photo from the folder and placed it before the group.

Tony felt himself flinch away from the site of the mangled vehicle. His parents were not in the photo, probably having already been taken away by that point but it still hurt to see the destructive remains of their car. The same car that Jarvis had taught him how to drive in his second summer home from MIT. 

Aunt Peggy clasped her hand over his and he realized that his fingernails were digging into his palm. He loosened the fist and let Peggy hold it at his side without ever taking his eyes away from the photo.

"What about, um, airbags?"

"Unfortunately, they are not standard with this particular make and model so there was nothing to deploy."

Of course, the one time his father passed over his safer, flashier model, he chose the rolling death trap. Though that did beg the question, why was he driving that particular vehicle? Tony hadn't thought much of it that day, he assumed it was for the larger trunk space than the sports cars, but they had been travelling surprisingly light. Tony filed this information away to ask about later. Jarvis had been the one to pull the car around, maybe he knew why they took that car, and for that matter, why his father didn't have him drive. Though he was silently thankful he hadn’t. He didn’t think he could survive anymore losses.

The chief's voice cut back through Tony's thoughts, his eyes finally lifting from the mangled vehicle remains.

“Our crash reconstruction team is still completing their initial conclusion but from what we have been able to determine so far is that speed and ice may have played a factor. There was some minor snowfall and black ice warnings. It seems the driver was going over the speed limit and hit some black ice and was unable to control the vehicle.”

“The driver,” Tony scoffed. “My father you mean.”

“Yes, sir. Howard Stark was found to be at the wheel.”

Tony nodded his head and breathed out heavily, his hand running through his hair and then across his face.

“We can take a break if you’d like,” Sanders offered but Tony was already shaking his head.

“No, look I’d rather get this over with as quickly as possible. When can I see them?”

Rhodey sent a concerned glance towards his friend but Tony ignored him. He had been brought down here to do a job and the longer it took to further confirm that yes, he was the sole Stark left in the world, the more his anxiety gained foothold in his mind, conjuring up horrific, gory images of them both. He was aching for a drink.

“I have some photographs here that I can provide you to look over first. Most traumas like this can cause a bit of shock and some find it easier to view their loved ones from a safe distance…” Sanders began.

“I don’t want to look at anymore pictures, I need to see them. They are here right? I mean that’s why I was brought down here. Given my family’s status you understand why I have to see them in person.” 

“Tony, are you sure?” Obadiah questioned.

“Can you all stop treating me like I’m made of fucking glass?” Tony shouted springing from his seat. The others cautiously rose as well and Tony slipped his dark glasses back over his eyes, trying to regain control over his emotions again. He composed himself and responded quieter this time. “Yes, Obie I am sure.”

Obie turned to Sanders and nodded in assent to him. 

“The viewing room is right through this door, Mr. Stark,” he motioned to the heavy door behind him. Sanders stood and opened it up, quietly speaking to whatever attendant was inside the room just waiting for them.

Tony took a deep breath and squared his shoulders and followed the police chief through the door. Rhodey was by his side but the others hung back in the doorway as Tony entered the small room. 

It felt like Tony was in a movie. A cold, metal slab was positioned in the center of the room, two figures covered by white sheets resting on top.

A tired, paunchy attendant had stood up when the door opened and came to stand beside the figures, face carefully schooled to show no emotion surely after having to experience a thousand meetings like this one. 

Tony slowly approached him after his initial burst through the door. The ringing in his ears was back and his muscles tensed, stopping a few feet short of the table.

"There was a lot of trauma to the faces from the impact, the male's especially, sir. Due to that they may not look completely as you may expect and you should prepare yourself," the attendant explained in a softer voice than Tony would have imagined him having.

"I understand." 

He was just barely able to keep the tremor from his voice, his mind already running away with gruesome implications. Rhodey, his ever present strength, stood shoulder to shoulder with him. 

Tony sucked in a breath as the attendant leaned forward and efficiently pulled the sheet back on the first of his parents remains. He found himself groping Rhodey's dark hand in his as he made the last step forward, letting his glasses slide down his nose far enough to see over them. Even before he did though, he knew. 

There was no denying his father's close cropped hair and meticulously trimmed mustache, even through the bruising and swelling. There were cuts lining his forehead from where glass must have sprayed him, and a larger gash over his nose and temple where most of the impact was absorbed. 

A memory bubbled to the surface of his mind then from long ago. A hot summer day spent in the garage of the mansion, the engine of the hot rod they were building together in pieces on the floor. He remembered his father smiling patiently as he put the parts together, a strong hand covering his small one to help tighten a bolt. He could still smell the spicy scent of his Dad's cologne mixing with sweat and oil as they continued to work together that day. He had been in a good mood, he had told some jokes and ruffled Tony's hair, not caring about the grease they both got on their clothes and faces. It was late before an exasperated but happy Maria had retrieved them for dinner.

“Tones…” Rhodey nudged him gently, concern written all over his face. It was then that Tony realized that the paunchy attendant had spoken to him and was patiently waiting for an answer. 

He blinked back tears from his eyes but never took his eyes off the figure before him. “What?”

“Are there any scars or distinguishing marks to check for?”

Tony thought about it for a moment, racking his brain for anything that he may have seen or his father may have mentioned. There was one story that came to mind of a daring rescue behind enemy lines with the Howling Commandos. He had been shot during a rescue effort. The story had been a favorite to tell crowds at parties when asked about his time with Captain America.

“A scar,” he whispered. “Left side, above the hip.”

The attendant pulled the sheet back farther and Tony tried to block out the bruising and swelling on his chest, probably from the seat belt. Sure enough, there the little pink scar was right above the hip. Tony released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, bringing a hand to run across his face tiredly.

“That’s him. My father, Howard Stark.”

The attendant nodded and pulled the sheet back to Howard’s shoulders before returning to his seat to scribble on a clipboard waiting there.

One down, one to go. 

It felt like some weird out of body experience watching his father lay so silent and still, never again to drive Tony up the wall with Captain America or how a future Stark Industries CEO should conduct himself. No more lectures, no more arguments. No more chances for reconciliation. And wasn’t that what burned the most? The chance to ever come to some sort of understanding of how different and how much they were the same all at once had been stolen away in the course of a single night. Had his father thought of him in the end? Did he share the same regrets in those last moments? Or did he never even realize what was coming?

“Do you need a minute?”

He needed a drink. Lots of them, but he didn’t think Rhodey was carrying a flask on him today so he silently shook his head and stepped around to the other side of the table. 

The attendant, Walsh, his badge stated, returned to Tony’s side and went through the same preamble as he had with Howard. The facial trauma wasn’t as severe but swelling, bruising and the like would still be present. Without another word he pulled back the sheet on Maria and stepped back to give them time to examine her. 

If Tony thought it was unnatural to see his father in such a state it was downright nauseating to view his mothers pale empty face. The makeup that she painstakingly applied in the early hours of every morning had been wiped away. Her blonde hair that was never out of place hung down around her face, cascading over her shoulders and onto the table. She had similar patterns of cuts and bruising but not as severe as Howard. Even dead his face had been set in a frown but hers, she could be sleeping as peaceful as she appeared. 

“Oh, Ma,” he whispered quietly to himself. His throat constricted as he reached out for her lifeless hand and gripped it in his own. 

Her hand was soft like he remembered but so cold and rigid. Maria’s hands were never cold, never still. She was always using them for something. Baking with Ana in the kitchen was a favorite past time, making breads and baked goods, but especially making pasta from scratch. She used to let Tony sit on the counter and watch her as she slowly mixed the eggs and flour together to make the dough and the absolute patience that she spent kneading it until it was just right. Sometimes she would let Tony roll the dough out after it had rested. She’d cover his hands with her own and steadily move the heavy rolling pin back and forth until he got tired. 

_“You’re grandmother would have a heart attack if she ever saw us do this, but I can keep a secret if you can,” she would wink and smile at him, pulling out the pasta maker from one of the cabinets and letting him crank the handle as she fed the dough through._

Most often she would keep her hands moving against the ivory keys of the grand piano they kept in the sitting room. Sometimes she would play at dinner parties after everyone had eaten. His father would never fail to bring up how she was the best piano player he had ever met.

_“She could be playing in Carnegie Hall, I assure you.”_

Tony would watch from the staircase on nights when he wasn’t allowed to join them and watch his mother smile and blush, no matter how many times Howard used that same line, before taking her seat and playing excerpts from Mozart and Beethoven as easy as breathing.

Maria had patiently taught Tony to play from a young age as well, wanting him to be versed in more than engines and circuit boards. Though Tony had picked it up with the ease he did with most everything, he never moved with the same motion or purpose that his mother did. She could close her eyes and lose herself in the music for hours, becoming so overwhelmed tears would often be streaming down her cheeks without her even knowing. 

Sometimes, like that last morning he saw her, she would even sing, and while Tony may not have understood the feeling behind playing music, watching his mother perform was always hypnotizing. She _made_ you feel it.

Tony felt the cracks inside of him finally shattering into a million broken pieces. The finality of the situation penetrating his mind, his body letting loose years of unspoken emotions. He crumpled against the table, his control over his body and emotions long gone. He thought that Rhodey might have been alongside him, holding him up and speaking softly but he couldn’t be sure. 

All he could think about was how these hands would never again be used to make music or pasta. He’d never again feel them against his cheek as she softly consoled him after an argument with his father or have them wrap around him in a hug, gently brushing up and down his back. He’d never have them loop through his arm again as he led her down a red carpet charity gala or have her whisper behind them and tease about the strong, powerful, up and coming ladies attending the same function, that might be interested in him. 

_“One of them could help you run Stark Industries one day,” she’d smiled._

His stomach was tying itself into painful knots the longer he stood in this room and he wasn’t sure if it was the remnants of his hangover or being forced to identify the lifeless remains of two of the most important people in his life. Probably a combination of both but he needed to go. He needed to flee this room and not look back. Obie or Peggy could take things from here. He had done his job, he had seen the proof for himself and confirmed what his heart hadn’t wanted to believe. 

He was the last of the Stark line. 

“I’m sorry, Mom.”

Tony wasn’t sure what he was sorry for. He hadn’t caused the accident, but he couldn’t help feeling like there was something that he could have done. Maybe he was just sorry for the terrible manner in which she had passed. Sorry that she would never get to see him truly take his place in the world. Sorry she would never know if he had a wife or family of his own someday. Sorry because he knew that he was not strong enough to deal with this loss the way he was expected to. The way he had been brought up to. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered once more through the tears and bent down and placed a soft kiss to her lifeless palm. 

He was suddenly hit with a sense of wrongness. An awareness that something was amiss, and not just the fact that his family was gone. Something smaller. Insignificant almost. He took a steadying breath trying to still his pounding heart and clear the warmth from his eyes. 

Rhodey offered him a tissue but he brushed it away. He was thinking, trying to block out his surroundings and concentrate on what his brain was trying to tell him. His eyes skimmed over his mother and back down at her hand, a twinge in the back of his mind continually nagging to look closer.

He noticed the faint outline of skin discoloration where her wedding and engagement rings normally rested. Maybe he felt strange having never seen her without them?

“My mother’s rings?” He had to clear his throat twice before his voice no longer sounded so raw.

Walsh nodded as though he was expecting the question sooner or later.

“Yes, sir. We have a bag of personal effects from each individual that will be released to you now that the identification has been confirmed.”

Tony nodded wordlessly but this did nothing to quiet the nagging sensation. 

"You ready to go or do you want some more time?"

"Something's wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"There's something wrong about her, Rhodey."

Rhodey looked uncertainly at his friend trying to decide whether the grief was finally getting the better or him or if there was genuinely something wrong. He glanced over Maria's body but did not see anything amiss. 

"I don't see anything, Tones."

Tony let out a frustrated groan and turned back toward Maria, placing his hand back in hers. That's when it clicked. He turned her hand over and an image came to his mind of his mother playing the piano the morning before they left, and then later when she pressed a hand to his cheek. 

Her nails were wrong. 

His mother kept her nails short at all times. She still went for routine manicures and nail painting but she preferred to keep them short. A habit leftover from when she still dreamed of being a concert pianist and kept them short for playing and practicing. 

Her nails yesterday had been painted and short. 

These were not. 

He let go of the hand and jumped back like he had been burned. 

"Tony, you alright?" Rhodey asked.

"Her nails are long."

Rhodey looked like he didn't know what to make of what Tony was saying, looking from him to where Peggy and Obadiah stood at the door. They didn't look anymore clued in than he did. 

Cautiously. "Yes, they are."

"It's wrong."

Peggy finally entered the room all the way, brushing by Walsh as he sent concerned glances as he finished writing his report. 

"Tony, " Peggy began gently coming to his other side. "What's going on?"

"That's not my mother Aunt Peg. I don't know who she is but it’s not my mom, mom had short nails and hers are long, " he indicated to the hand he had released. 

"Are you sure you're not remembering wrong?"

“I know what I’m talking about. She was playing the piano before they left. Her nails were short. Why would I make this up?”

Peggy kept her voice low and reached out to Tony like he were a wounded animal. “I don’t think that you would. I just think that it has been an exhausting and emotional time. Why don’t we go get some air?”

“I don’t want air, I want you to listen to me. You brought me down here. You forced me to look at them. I’m trying to tell you that something is wrong, that this is not her and you aren’t listening!”

He slammed his hand down on the metal table, the harsh noise reverberating throughout the room, making everyone flinch. Obie chose that moment to enter the fray and calmly grasp Tony by the shoulders. Tony pulled back but Obadiah’s grip was stronger.

“Hey, hey kid. Calm down. You think there’s something wrong?” 

“What am I a broken record? Have you not listened to what I just said?”

“I heard you Tony.” Obadiah stooped lower to look the boy in the eyes before continuing. “If you really think that there’s something wrong, we have ways that we can check it out, okay?”

Tony calmed a little when he realized that Obie seemed to be taking him seriously. He cleared his throat, speaking in gentler tones. “What other ways?”

The older man patted him and stepped back, relinquishing his grip. “All Stark Industries personnel have their fingerprints on file for security reasons. This practice extends to the CEO and his wife. We can check dental records. There’s even a lot going on now with DNA. I will make them run all the tests and every analysis that it takes to make sure we have the right people. You can make that happen right?” Obie questioned, pointing a long finger towards Walsh.

“Uhhh yeah, yes sir. It could take some time for results to come back, though.”

“I expect this to be a top priority and as such to be executed with the utmost expediency.”

“Of course, Mr. Stane.”

Obadiah turned back to Tony pleased. “Does this work for you?”

For the first time since the phone call Tony finally felt like someone was listening to him and his needs. He could feel his blood pressure begin to lower as he calmed and released a deep sigh. 

“Yeah. Yeah, that’s great Obie thank you.”

Obadiah turned his attention back to Peggy. “I trust that you can get him back home in one piece?”

Peggy had the good nature not show how insulted she felt but nodded her head along anyways. She didn’t know what angle Obadiah was playing at but she really wasn’t going to put up with his condemnation much longer. 

“Go on, son. I’ll reach out to you when we know something more.” Obadiah gripped Tony in a crushing bear hug before ushering him along with Peggy.

Tony walked in a daze, pushing his glasses back over the bridge of his nose and allowing Peggy and Rhodey to lead him from the room, sparing brief glances at the bodies still lying uncovered on the table. 

“And for God’s sake get the media away from the back exit or you’re going to get swarmed. It may be time to invest in a personal bodyguard,” Obie called out. Peggy shot him a glance but motioned to Jarvis to pull the car around. 

The heavy doors shut leaving Obadiah, Walsh and Sanders alone. Obadiah narrowed his eyes as he turned back to look at Walsh.

“You guys are getting sloppy. You wouldn’t have had this little hiccup if you would have just got rid of the boy too.”

“The boy has no value to us,” Sanders responded, drawing Stane’s attention from Walsh.

“Yet.” Obadiah responded confidently. “As my father always said, you want something done right, you take care of it yourself. You’re dealing with this right? None of this will work if you cannot convince the closest people to their lives that they are dead. I need these results to be fabricated beyond any reasonable doubt that these two stiffs are Howard and Maria Stark.”

“It will be handled, I assure you. We didn’t anticipate such a small detail causing alarm, we didn’t know,” Walsh responded.

“Not a single detail can be overlooked in these cases. The kid is a bloodhound. Handle it or I will handle you myself,” Obadiah said, pulling out a cigar from his inside jacket pocket and lighting it. He took a few short puffs and then a longer drag and blew the smoke in the man’s face and laughed. He moved to exit the room and paused in the door, cigar still between his teeth. “Oh yeah. Hail Hydra.”

“Hail Hydra,” the two men responded simultaneously and Obadiah exited the room, a cloud of smoke following him as he went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hail Hydra? 
> 
> Scream at me on tumblr too, theherothechampiontheinquisitor


	4. The Interim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Sorry for not posting last week! I've caught up to the part in the past where I hadn't finished writing (the other 10k+ that's pre-written is present time stuff) and between the holidays and my kids being home forever, not much writing was able to be done. Then last week when I was catching up finally, the whole family came down with the sick bug from hell and further writing derailed.
> 
> I'm still sick so I will admit this chapter is a bit of a filler. We're pushing back the time jump to the present to chapter 5 or 6 because of such but I wanted to make sure to post SOMETHING for you guys for waiting so patiently. 
> 
> So, sorry for the delay and the brevity but please still let me know your thoughts and comments below. I'll get the next chapter to you next week featuring how the hell Howard and Maria wind up in the year 2016! Further on from that we'll be having some Pepperony feels and IronDad beginnings so stay tuned. <3

It had been a week now and Peggy was still no closer to finding out what really happened the night that her friends died. They didn’t have much to go on, the bodies had been positively ID’d (and what a long day that was), there were no other witnesses or anyone nearby to talk to. Everyone who had last seen Howard as he picked up the serums for further testing hadn’t noticed anything wrong or off as he’d left. Even the vehicle had shown no signs of tampering, no cut break lines or the sort, just that cracked back window which didn’t make any sense to her. The only lead they had was the destroyed camera that her team had been working nonstop to get the footage from. 

Yet Peggy knew that there was so much more to this story. Why would Howard have tried to call her otherwise? Someone must have ran them off the road and killed them, but with the litany of enemies Howard Stark had acquired through Shield and his own company, it was anyone’s guess who.

There was one thing she knew for certain, whoever it was had help on the inside. No one else knew why Howard had dropped in. They certainly did not know that he had the serums. Yet they were missing from the crash site. 

She had to figure this out and soon. Not just for her own sake but for Tony’s as well. 

The boy had been a wreck for the last week, or so she had heard from phone calls with Mr. Jarvis or Tony’s friend, Rhodes. He had begun to shut everyone out. The first victim being herself and then slowly extending to Mr Jarvis. Instead he’d been spending his time drinking or sequestered away with Obadiah Stane. 

What a prick Obadiah was. She had never been his biggest fan no matter how much Howard wished they’d all just get along. The large man had always set off warning bells in her mind. Every moment, which thankfully wasn’t many, that they were around each other, it was like he was testing her or challenging her, forcing her to engage in a mental game of chess. Peggy had always been sharp though, and easily went tit for tat with the man when needed, to his great amusement.

Credit where it was due, Stane was a decent businessman and helped take care of a lot of the day to day grind at SI for Howard but he was too...controlling. Demanding. For someone who wasn’t the CEO he sure liked to pretend he was. In Peggy’s experience that thirst for power never ended well 

She had stood by and watched him dig his claws into Howard and she really didn’t want to see that happen to Tony either, but the boy was unfortunately even more stubborn than his father, not accepting any other council.

“Director, you’re going to want to take a look at this,” one of her newer agents, Coulson she thinks, burst through her office door, carrying a tape close to his chest and pulling Peggy from her thoughts. 

She straightened at her chair and motioned for the agent to continue. “What is it?”

“You know that camera overlooking the crash site? We were finally able to extract the footage,” he spoke breathlessly and pushed the tape into the VCR on the metal tv stand in the corner. He fast forwards through some dead air before that bleary dark road comes into view. 

Peggy watches with restrained horror as the Stark vehicle comes into view with a motorcycle of all things trailing beside it as it crashes. 

“So, you can see here it looks like they were run off the road and then the motorcycle doubles back for the serum,” Coulson narrates.

“We figured as much,” she says quietly, eyes still glued to the screen. She has seen many terrible things, but fewer more personal than this. She watches confused as Howard clearly crawls from the wreckage, towards the man that was ransacking through the trunk for the serums. He must have been killed and placed back in his seat when he was noticed. If only she would have sent some security with them, some kind of escort.

“But here’s the kicker…”

“Is that…” she trails off not wanting to give credence to her next thought. Of course Shield had heard of the Winter Soldier. How could they not have? He was tied to almost every high profle assassination in the last two decades. At least that narrowed things down a bit. Hydra was gaining a foothold again.

“Who ma’am?”

“No one good.”

She watched as he retrieved a still alive Maria from the other side and gathered her with Howard and she finally began to feel confused. Why wouldn’t he have just finished them where they were?

“So, he grabs them both and you can see just off the edge of the camera they get loaded up into another vehicle and they plant some very good lookalikes. That’s the last thing that recorded before the camera was blown.”

Peggy’s mouth was agape as she thought back to that awful morning in the hospital, Tony screaming at her that something was wrong, that it was not his mom. And Obadiah Stane stepping in to calm him. That couldn’t be a coincidence could it? 

“They’re alive then.”

“Appears that way. Or at least they were a week ago.”

“Who else knows about this tape?”

“Just us.”

“Keep it that way until we know more The Starks are still dead. Try to identify the license plate information and where they could have taken them. Airports, train stations, bus stations. Anything around, we need the full work up on.”

“Got it.”

More than anything Peggy wanted to tell Tony what she knew, but the funeral was yesterday. She couldn’t bring the boy false hope when The Starks very well could be dead by now or worse considering all the work that went into this disappearance. He couldn’t know. Not until they knew everything for sure. She resigned herself to the fact that she would just have to beg for Tony’s forgiveness when she brought his parents home, one way or another.

* * *

Rhodey was worried about his friend. 

Howard and Maria Stark’s death and subsequent funeral quickly turned into a media frenzy, reporter’s crowding outside of the Stark mansion hoping to catch a glimpse and some words from the Stark heir. After the outburst at the hospital though, Tony had given them nothing.

Instead he had stayed holed up in what was once his father’s lab, drinking and tinkering with Rhodey and Obie as his only company. The way he explained it to Rhodey was that he loved Jarvis and Aunt Peggy but they kept looking at him and talking to him with such pity dripping from their tones and he couldn’t stand it anymore. Rhodey didn’t see them at all after that initial ride home from the hospital until the funeral. 

Tony had followed Obie’s advice and hired a personal bodyguard, a beefy boxer type from Queens that he ironically decided to nickname, Happy. He kept the press away from Tony quite efficiently at the funeral and the rest of the security confined them to practically the other side of the cemetery but they still got plenty of melancholy shots of the mourning son to make headlines with. One such newspaper was strewn across the small table in the foyer that held the same phone that changed his best friend’s life. 

Obie had been here then.

Rhodey nodded to Happy and he nodded back as he stood alert outside of the formal living room where Tony was, the only sound that of a melancholy Beethoven song being played on the piano. 

Rhodey stood in the doorway for a moment observing the scene. Tony was seated at the piano, still wearing his crumpled suit from yesterday though the tie was gone and the white shirt untucked, sleeves rolled up and collar hanging open. An open bottle of Howard’s top shelf whiskey sat atop the piano, half finished. Slowly, he entered the room, making enough noise as he walked so that Tony knew that he was there. 

“What’s that?” Rhodey asked sliding onto the bench beside Tony. Papers littered the top of the piano, slightly damp in spots where liquor had splashed out from where Tony was haphazardly drinking.

Tony gave him a sideways glance but never stopped playing and Rhodey pretended not to notice the tear tracks on his face. “You know.”

“Obie’s papers?”

Tony nodded and continued playing. “DNA, fingerprints, coroner's reports, police reports. All corroborating the demise of my blood line.”

“I’m sorry, Tones.”

He said nothing in response, just pushed the keys harder, haunting piano notes echoing throughout the room. 

Rhodey was really worried about him. He had seen Tony high and he had seen him in his lows but this was a new beast of burden. Like the weight of the entire world was slowly crushing him, sucking the life and the breath from his body until this empty shell was left. For the hundredth time since the accident, Rhodey wished that he didn’t have to return to the Air Force, but his leave was over. He’d already skipped going back home to Philly to see his folks after he explained the situation. Mama Rhodes had been horrified but entirely understanding. It took a lot to convince her not to make her own trip up to New York to be there for her ‘other son.’ As much as Rhodey missed her and thought Tony could use the extra comfort, he was more sure in his decision that Tony wouldn’t want her to see him like this. 

“Tony, are you going to be okay?”

And that was a loaded question wasn’t it? Of course he wouldn’t be okay, not for a long time, but he needed the peace of mind so that when he left he would know his friend wouldn’t do something stupid, like punch his own ticket because no one was there to stop him. 

Tony just shrugged and stopped his playing long enough to take a drink, the bottle clattering against the pristine piano as he started again without missing a note.

“I have to go back today,” Rhodey emphasized.

“Of course you do. The war machine waits for no one, least of all a Senior Airman, such as yourself.”

“The war’s over.”

Tony shook his head. “No, war is the one thing that’s never over, Rhodey.” He laughed like it was an inside joke before mumbling, “If war ever ended I’d be out of a job.”

“You and I both know that’s not true. You can do more brilliant things than build bombs, Tony.”

Tony scoffed but Rhodey knew it was the truth. They sat there like that for awhile longer until Tony finally finished the song, his hands stilling against the keys.

“I’m going to California.”

“What?”

“Obadiah set it up. We’re going to move operations out to our Malibu location. It’ll be good. It’s good. I need a change. I can’t stay in this fucking house Rhodey. It’s killing me. I’m packing it up and someday when I get the goddamn balls I’m selling it so I don’t ever have to think of this place again.”

Rhodey was shocked by the sudden announcement but knew that a change might actually be the best thing for Tony to do in the moment. He had never liked being in the mansion, especially when it was so empty.

“That’s a good idea, Tones. You can do with some sun, you’re looking a bit pasty.” Tony cracked a small upturned smile and Rhodey felt a small modicum of relief, all hope was not lost yet. “When do you leave?”

“Tomorrow.”

“That fast, huh?”

“I’d go tonight but I need time to say goodbye to Jarvis.”

“Wait, he’s not going with you?”

“Nope,” Tony said popping the ‘p’ as he spoke.

“What? Why not?”

“I’m twenty-one and a CEO now, that’s a little bit too old to still have Jarvis playing nursemaid, don’t you think?”

That did not sound like Tony at all. In fact it sounded like some regurgitated bullshit that Obadiah had been mentioning lately when he didn’t think Rhodey was nearby to listen. “You know it’s not like that, he’s your friend. Did you even ask him to go?”

“Christ, I’m not firebombing the man, Rhodey. Jarvis deserves to be free to do what he and Ana want to do. He’s been shackled to my old man and then to me most of his life. I’m setting him and Ana up for life, the freedom and the time to do whatever it is that they want instead of taking care of a spoiled rich kid in their golden years.”

“What brought this little revelation to your mind, huh? Is it Obie again?”

Tony was quiet. “He’s right, Rhodey.”

“That’s bullshit, Tony. I am all about you getting a change of scenery, I really think it will help, but just because you have this new responsibility doesn’t mean that you need to push away everyone that’s still here for you. “

“A little dramatic don’t you think?”

Rhodey resisted snapping at that. Losing his cool wouldn’t help anyone. “And what if he doesn’t want to go, have you thought about that?”

“He will though.”

“How can you be so sure?” Jarvis loved Tony like a son. He wouldn’t just abandon him. 

Tony just took a long pull from the whiskey bottle and shook his head. His next words came out low and shaky, Rhodey straining to hear them. 

“He always does what I ask him to do.”


	5. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me preface this by saying that this is literally the chapter that would NOT be written. I can't tell you how many times I have scrapped this and started over and now I'm just done and gotta put it out there. lol Sorry if it seems a little short or choppy, and rushed. It was originally meant to be posted with last weeks chapter if it had been complete.
> 
> Also I did a recent rewatch of Civil War and yeeeeeah I had them drive up this mountain to get to this Hydra base which there's just no way of that happening in the film so regarding the base and all things moving forward there may be some creative license used. 
> 
> Next week I am caught back up on pre-written content and we make our jump to Civil War and the real meat of the story, family relationships. :D Enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment or kudos. You all are wonderful humans and I appreciate every bit of love this story has gotten so far. <3

Howard wasn't sure how long it had been since he and Maria had been taken. He was vaguely able to keep track of the days through the meager meals they were fed twice a day, foul disgusting protein powder concoctions that barely took the edge off of any real hunger, and the brief glimpses of the changing sky whenever he was led to the labs to do his work. 

They tried to separate him and Maria at the beginning but he had stubbornly refused to go anywhere without her. Who knows what awful things they could have done to her if he allowed that. He slowly discovered that he held a little power when Karpov relented, not without a few blows to the torso from his goons, but what was a few ribs compared to his wife's safety?

That had been Karpov's first mistake. 

Maria may have outwardly seemed like someone that they could just use to keep Howard in line or some demure house wife who only existed to spend their husband's wealth but Maria had an amazing mind of her own. Each day they were led to a lab. While Howard worked on looking like he was doing as much work as possible while simultaneously doing as little as possible, Maria watched. She watched the guards, memorized their patterns, their features, their quirks and vices. She watched the rotation changes, who replaced who after how long and calculated any other anomalies. She did this often times as she assisted him with whatever was needed.

Karpov wanted super soldiers of course but he didn't just want a replication of Erskine's crowning achievements, he wanted them to be upgraded, to be even better. Karpov's idea of a super soldier was faster, stronger, and more easily controlled.

They had ways to control people, Karpov had said that first day as he laid out Howard's tasks before him, a wandering eye glancing towards the stoic winter soldier, but they needed a more streamlined approach. He also wanted weapons and armor, designs that would give Hydra the edge over their enemies. 

Predictable, Howard thought, but easily manipulated. 

So, he started to give the Hydra leader what he wanted. 

He wanted better weapons, more fire power, so he created it. If while they were testing the weapon on the range in the sub basement and it overheated and exploded, taking out four or five Hydra men, well. That wasn't Howard's fault. It was a prototype after all that would normally undergo at least a year of development to ensure safety, not three days. 

The bulletproof armor plating he provided looked like it was a work of modern art, but he may have forgotten to mention that it was a prototype that SI had discredited years ago for it's heaviness and poor track record when up against anything stronger than a 9mm. 

And so it continued. 

Howard was always a gifted bullshitter. He could sell a glass of water to a drowning man. He created impressive, beautiful weapons that at surface level were everything that Karpov had asked for, but hidden within was a fatal flaw that did more damage to the Hydra teams attempting to use them.

“You’re stalling,” the angry voice called over Howard’s shoulder. He stopped working on the serum enhancements that he had been tasked with that day and found an angry Karpov towering over him. 

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Karpov nods to the winter soldier who snatches Maria from where she sat beside him, a metal hand clenching her neck as she gasps in surprise.

"Let her go!" he shouts and attempts to intervene only to be grabbed by one of Karpov's goons and held in place.

"Do you think someone is coming for you? That you can just play me for a fool, bide your time until you get out of here?" the man shouts, his accent growing thicker the more that he yells. "They're not. You're dead!" 

The man unfolds the newspaper that he had carried into the room with him and slammed it onto Howard's work station.

The paper is tattered and old, at least a month judging by what he can determine of the date. Howard doesn't understand what the paper says, but he at least is able to tell that it is in Russian, narrowing down a critical clue if he and Maria are to escape this place.

That was Karpov's second mistake.

Howard does recognize the Stark name emblazoned on the headline and the clincher, a picture of his son dressed in black and standing before two ornate coffins. It didn't take a genius to realize this was a funeral. His funeral. 

"What did you do?" Howard whispered, lowly, gritting his teeth together to control his anger. 

"I killed you. So, when I say that no one is looking for you, I mean, no one is looking for you. Not your business partner. Not your friends. Not your son. In fact...they all seem to be thriving in your absence," he continues and places another newspaper down, more recent with a brightly colored picture of Obadiah and Tony. "Your empire is being moved and expanded to California. Your son to take the reigns of operation. You should be proud."

Howard was always proud of his son, had known he'd make a great leader for Stark Industries, but this was not his time. Not the way that Howard wanted it to happen. 

"So, you see there is no point resisting, no hope to hold out on, the world is moving on without you. If you do not start producing results...real results. I will kill her. And then I will kill your son. Slowly. Painfully. And you will watch. Do we have an understanding?"

Howard refused to meet the man's eyes but nodded his assent.

The soldier released Maria, and the Hydra goons did the same, shoving Howard as they filed out of the room. 

"Remember...real results," Karpov said with a smile as he turned to exit the room as well.

"Are you alright?" he asked, a gentle hand brushing against where Maria's neck was flushed red.

"I'll be fine," she whispered, her eyes and mind distracted by the newspapers on the table. She traced her finger across the colored picture of Tony with a wistful look in her eye. "At least he's okay. "

Howard said nothing but a mumbled agreement, his mind trying to move up the timetable of their plans now that he knew that Maria was safe from harm for the moment.

"Are we still following the plan?" Maria asked quietly.

"Mostly. We have a location now at least," he stated pointing a weary hand at the Russian script.

"Are you sure Shield will be able to track the signal?"

"Enough. We have safehouses and facilities everywhere. Peggy will be able to figure it out. Lets get to work."

* * *

Karpov asked for five enhanced super soldiers and five enhanced super soldiers he received. 

Howard had already worked out the serum before they had been taken by Hydra. The tweaks that were requested were easy enough to do, just requiring the careful chemical additions. So, the man would get what he wanted on the outside but it would not be pleasant for the recipients. They wouldn't have the benefit of Steve's quick transformation a lifetime ago. They would have to sweat it out, writhing in pain as their cells were slowly modified. Once the bulk of the transformation was completed that's when Howard's additional "upgrades" would come in to play. Aggressiveness, disobedience, irritability. 

If Hydra was hoping to come out with another puppet like Barnes had been turned into then they would find themselves sorely lacking. 

So, he delivered the serum and the countdown began. 

While Karpov and his ilk played nursemaid to the transforming soldier's, Howard and Maria continued working in their lab on weapons for Hydra and one of their own, a personal locator beacon. Howard worked tirelessly to program the beacon to emit the signals on a frequency that their Shield agents would use in case of a mission gone wrong and extraction was needed. 

The only thing that Howard worried about was their location. With the mountains and the snow he wasn't sure how strong the beacon would be and if it could get out far enough. In his own lab at home with his own materials it wouldn't be an issue. Working with the scraps of second hand Hydra material he couldn't be nearly so sure. 

The beacon was small though, unobtrusive, and best of all, looked no different then the other scraps in the room. Howard was able to create three in all. 

They activated the first and included it in a small shipment of weapons Howard had produced. He didn't know where the shipment went to but he knew that it was out of this facility and if that got the signal out there then all the better. 

The next beacon Maria was able to activate and secure for their current position. The bathroom, at least for her, was the only place that they were not monitored, and the only part of the facility that was not technically underground. The beacon was placed on the ledge of the small window, reinforced and blocked glass, but the closest that they could get to no interference.

The last they saved. 

If they found an opening to get the hell out of this prison, they might just need it. 

* * *

Peggy saw the signal but she couldn't believe it.

Thirty minutes ago Agent Coulson had burst into her office going on about a distress signal that they were tracking in the middle of Siberia of all places. Currently all of their agents in the area were accounted for and not in any kind of trouble, which could only lead her to believe that perhaps they may have gotten the break they had been needed to find Howard and Maria.

All leads had practically dried up a couple months ago after their breakthrough with the video tape. Just one dead end leading to another. They had managed to discover the defunct airfield that the Stark's had possibly been transported from but the old caretaker hadn't said more than a "hail hydra" before slipping a cyanide pill in his mouth. 

"How long has the signal been active?"

"Couple of days."

"Can we pinpoint the location?"

"That's what we are attempting now Director. It's very similar to our distress signal patterns but it's not nearly as strong, like it has been damaged or tampered with," Coulson replied.

"Or hastily made in Hydra captivity?" she questioned knowingly.

"Anything is possible."

"Well, Agent Coulson, I think it's time to gather a team. We have some hunting to do in Siberia."

* * *

Karpov watched the chaos unfolding around him as the other super soldiers began to attack his team without provocation.

"Soldat, get me out of here," he instructed to the winter soldier and he felt relieved that he at least still had one man under his control.

That bastard Stark must have done something again. Ever since he brought him here it had been one thing after another, malfunctioning weapons and armor and now super soldiers. How was he to prove himself to Von Strucker when he couldn't even keep one man under control? Not that he should have ever taken the pair in the first place. He had gone against Strucker's own orders, but he couldn't fathom why they would kill such a useful target, a target that they could force to be productive and rearm Hydra like they always should have been. Perhaps though Strucker had already known just how difficult it would be to reign Stark in and didn't think it was worth the frustration. 

As soon as the winter soldier got him out of the training area, Karpov gave the signal to his men and gas began to fill the room, causing the out of control soldiers to gasp and eventually succumb to unconsciousness.

This was a fucking disaster. 

"Take them back to their rooms. I need to have a word with Stark," he instructed the winter soldier and motioned for the other men in the room to assist him.

* * *

"STARK!!!"

Howard jolted as the door to the lab burst open, a very angry Karpov ready for a fight. Instinctively he pulled Maria behind him but it didn't matter, Karpov had already grabbed him by the worn out t-shirt they had issued him the second day they were there. He reeled back quickly and was able to get in a couple hard punches to Howard's face, sending him careening back against the table, bits and parts of everything he was working on clattering to the floor. 

"What did you do to my serum? I told you no more games!"

Howard swiped at the blood forming around his nose with a sneer. "I did nothing but what you asked for. Are they not faster? Stronger than Barnes?"

"That is not his name," Karpov lowered his voice dangerously, eyes darting to the door to make sure the man was not lurking to overhear, but there was no one there. Not even the regular guards. They were all working on getting the rogue soldiers back to their rooms before the gas wore off. 

"Not anymore I'd suspect, but he had a life once."

"And now he has a better one with Hydra. That doesn't answer what you did to my team."

Howard couldn't suppress the laugh bubbling in his chest. Of course he knew what had happened but this idiot didn't know that. He lifted himself up slowly, one hand behind his back gently searching for something to use as a weapon. "Your guess is as good as mine. We were no where near human trials with that serum, but you just couldn't wait."

"Are you saying this is my fault?!"

Howard's hand brushed up against a heavy piece of metal, framework for a prototype weapon. Better than nothing. "Im just saying, it's simple when you think about it really. You start off with something bad, you enhance all of their qualities in ways that never should be exploited, there's bound to be a few bad traits that are enhanced too. "

"FIX THEM!!!" Karpov's voice echoed throughout the small room.

"Sorry to put a damper on your super soldier program, but they've already been exposed to the serum. I can't fix it from the inside, you fool."

Karpov's heaving breaths slowed as he tried to get himself back under control. He looked back and forth between the pair and seemed to come to a fairly quick decision. "Then she dies."

He pulled his sidearm out in a flash and stretched his arm out towards Maria. Howard was ready for him though and was swinging the framework before Karpov even knew what happened. The makeshift weapon connected with the man's head and the shot intended for Maria went wide. Howard attacked him again before he could reorient himself, the metal framework coming down on the man's arm as he completely dropped the gun.

Maria snatched up the gun as Howard dealt another blow to the man's face sending him completely to the ground in anguish. 

"Maria go! I'm right behind you!"

They both took off for the open exit and began navigating the halls. They had their path memorized already should the opportunity for escape ever come up. Karpov and his men would sometimes come and go from the facility and it was Maria who had discovered that they had a hangar equipped with helicopters. It was amazing how much the men disregarded Maria and spoke freely around her just because she was a woman.

It had been a long time since Howard had to pilot anything but it didn't mean that he had forgotten how to. He used to be one of the best civilian pilots in the country and he was going to get them the hell out of here.

An alarm sounded behind them and he knew that they were running out of time. Just a little bit further.

They turned sharply into the next corridor when Howard felt himself connect with something solid and then a metal arm was around his throat and he was slammed roughly against the wall behind him.

"Howard!"

Maria pointed the small gun at the winter soldier but Howard waved her off. "Just go, you won't hurt him!"

"I can't fly on my own!" she shouted back to him.

She had a point. New tactic then.

"Barnes," Howard choked out around the mans grasp. "James Buchanon Barnes. Do you remember that? That's your name!"

The soldier flinched at the sound of his given name, his grip slackening.

"You do remember, don't you? Steve Rogers, he called you Bucky. I'm Howard. I owe you a flying car, remember??"

Howard watched the internal struggle play out across the man's face, two sides waging for dominance. His released Howard 's neck but kept him in place. They were running out of time. Howard could here footsteps rushing through the corridor. 

"Sorry pal," he mumbled under his breath and dealt the man a vicious blow to the side of the head with the dented frame he still carried. It wasn't enough to deal real damage but it did stun him enough to release Howard entirely. He leapt forward and grabbed Maria's arm, pulling her with him again down the hall but they didn't make it far.

Five Hydra soldiers met them at the entrance to the hangar and turning back only put them in the hands of Barnes again, his momentary struggle cast aside. A bloodied Karpov and several other soldiers came to reinforce him, and Howard knew the game was up. They'd come as far as they could. Hydra soldier's disarmed them both, holding them at gun point with their own weapons.

Howard had failed. Himself. His wife. His son. He failed them all. 

"Did you really think it would be so easy, Stark?" Karpov questioned coming around to face the group. He had learned his lesson though and kept a wide berth.

"If you're going to kill me then just do it you bastard."

Before Karpov could respond though a young soldier burst through the crowd.

"Sir, sorry to interrupt sir but we've just received orders from Von Strucker. All personnel are to evacuate the facility immediately."

"What the hell do you mean evacuate?"

The young man looked back and forth between Karpov and the Stark's and tried to quietly explain but his words still carried. 

"Our contact in Shield notified us that there's a team of operatives on there way. We're to drop everything and leave sir."

"My soldier's aren't ready yet. Damn it. We'll have to come back for them," he mumbled. 

"And the prisoner's sir?"

Howard didn't like the grin that formed across the man's face. Moments ago he had been ready to have them, or at least Maria killed and it sure didn't seem that they were going to be evacuated with them. He felt Maria grasp his bicep from behind, melding her body against his in support.

"We'll face this together," she whispered to him like she had on that first day, and he wished he had that same courage.

"Lets keep them on ice."

Howard's world went black as one of Karpov's men brought the butt of his gun down on his head, the last image that flitted through his mind of his wife and son.

* * *

"I'm sorry Director, we've searched all over the facility but there's no signs of The Stark's having ever been here," Coulson lamented. "It looks like whoever was here beat a hasty retreat. They could have been moved but we have no way of knowing. They've dumped everything."

Peggy squeezed her eyes shut as she watched her agents flutter around the facility taking paper records and anything that may have been left behind that was valuable. They were under the impression that this was a simple raid on a Hydra facility, but by the time they had infiltrated the base they had been too late. Someone knew that they were coming.

"And the beacon? Was it recovered?" 

Coulson opened his fist and dropped the rudimentary beacon in Peggy's hand. 

"A little crude for you Howard," she mumbled turning it over in her hands. There was no doubt about it that this was Howard Stark's work and it was very likely that Hydra had no idea it had ever been transmitting. "Is it possible there are more bases in the area?"

"We're already scanning terrain and searching for signals but the mountains are causing sever interference. A normal beacon wouldn't have this problem but this homemade thing? It's amazing we even picked up a signal at all."

"Keep searching. They're out there...somewhere," she sighed in disappointment.

Her suspicions had been confirmed that there was a mole hiding somewhere within Shield. Someone had tipped them off and they had made a run for it. No organization was without its corruption, but it hurt to have the very same organization she and her friend helped build, to also fail them both so spectacularly. 

She had failed them, but she would never stop searching.

* * *

_June 24, 2016_

50 miles North of the raided Hydra facility, was a smaller, undetectable facility, an outlier that housed the Winter Soldier program, run by Vasily Karpov. The facility had become inactive and left in disrepair following further fallout from the collapse of the Soviet Union in December of 1991 and several severe blizzards making the roads nigh impossible to navigate, but Zemo had been prepared. 

Once he navigated the treacherous mountainside it was easy enough to break into the heavy metal doors of the facility. 

Five dormant super soldiers waited to be awakened again from where they remained suspended between life and death with their cryostasis pods. Zemo put a bullet in each of their foreheads. It was more mercy than they deserved.

He navigated the facility with the help of the notes he had stolen from the old Hydra operative. The man had kept detailed accounts of the facility and the plans that he had, if only Von Strucker would let them return. He didn't mention any names but Zemo was no idiot, he could decipher code.

He was led further in to what looked to be a sub level. With a flick of the wrist he activated the lights to the room, the electricity whining and crackling from disuse.

Karpov had been attempting to create an army of super soldier monsters and there was no better evidence of that the couple dozen empty cryostasis pods waiting for use. Only two of the pods were lit up with a yellow light and Zemo made his slow approach. His revenge was set no matter what the outcome of this little adventure was. He had the video evidence of what the winter soldier had done to Stark's family. That alone would be enough to turn the men against each other, but if he was right, then his revenge would be made all the more sweeter.

He gazed up into the the two pods, his grin widening as he determined that they had remained completely functional even after all of these years.

It was time to bring Howard and Maria Stark to the 21st Century.

He hit the button in front of him to begin the reversal of their cryostasis. 

What was left of the Avengers would be here soon.


	6. The Reveal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, we are here! The big reveal! Though we do still have a few Civil War loose ends that we need to tie up first so buckle in, it's going to be a bumpy ride. :D As always excuse the liberties I take in regards to what this base looks like. lol
> 
> Thanks for the continual love and support that you guys give me on this. I adore every comment and kudos. Keep leaving them down below, they truly keep me going! <3 Enjoy <3

Coming out of a cryogenic sleep reminded Howard a lot of those early days of Stark Industries where he worked night and day until exhaustion finally forced him to pass out over his drafting table. He would always wake from those self imposed 'naps' with stiff bones and aching joints, head still dizzy and foggy as he tried to piece together how long he had been out for. That was how he felt now only amplified by a million. He felt weak and hungry and he mentally had to question just how long they had been under.

He vaguely remembered coming to as Karpov's men ushered he and Maria into these chambers but what he hadn't understood at the time was what exactly these chambers were for and by the time it had clicked in his mind it was too late. It had at least answered a few questions as to how Barnes had retained his youthfulness. Even if he had been exposed to a similar serum, the aging effects would have been apparent sixty years after the fact.

Now he was being told by a younger man, one he had never seen before, that the base had been completely abandoned ever since that day. Howard believed that much. The man introduced himself as Zemo, a friend though he wasn’t sure how true that was, and led them through the halls that seemingly only yesterday had been teeming with Hydra, only for it to be empty, dust and grime covering every surface. Rooms hastily abandoned, chairs upturned, drawers left open. 

Yet for all the truthful answers Zemo seemed to be giving them as he led them to a more comfortable room 'to talk,' Howard knew he was holding back. From the glances Maria kept shooting him she didn't seem to believe in his honest intentions either. This was still a Hydra base, abandoned or not. Surely, no one good seemed to be aware of its existence.

"If you are worried about Hydra, I am not with them," Zemo said with a half smile, his soft accent lilting off his words. "I became aware of your existence while I was taking down some retired Hydra agents, you may know? Vasily Karpov?"

Howard confirmed nothing but his eyes surely gave him away, Zemo's smile curling up further.

"Do not worry. He is no longer with us."

"While I certainly...appreciate the rescue...why would you do this? Are you with Shield?" Maria spoke for the first time since exiting the cryo unit. Her voice was quiet and rough from disuse. 

"Not exactly, but I know your son."

That really got both of their attentions. Howard shook off whatever clinging fog remained from his mind his heart jumping a little at the mention of his son.

"You know Tony?"

"Doesn't everyone?" Zemo responded with a smile. "Though I suppose you two have missed a lot while you have been away."

"How long has it been?" Maria asked softly.

"A long time, but he is on his way here for you and when he gets here I promise you it will all make sense."

Zemo placed his hand over Maria's on the table and Howard had to fight his instinct to bat it away. He didn't know what this guy's game was but he knew that his intentions were not as altruistic as he had been leading them to believe. He had his own agenda at play and was using them to accomplish his own ends. He just had to trust in the knowledge that his son was smarter than to walk into some kind of trap alone. 

"Wait here for now. I will let you know when he arrives. It shouldn't be long now. Some reading material perhaps?" He offered them a newspaper and then left the small room.

"We need to be prepared for anything," Howard spoke, turning to face his wife. 

Maria only nodded wordlessly, her face gone paler than before.

"What is it? Are you okay?" He touched a hand to the side of her face but she felt fine. Maria just scooted the newspaper before him.

The headline read in large, bold letters, " **CIVIL WAR - AVENGERS TO SPLIT OVER SOKOVIA ACCORDS?** " The headline meant nothing to Howard but the picture included caught his attention. He knew that face. It was older, much older than the last time he had seen it. There were lines on his face that had never been there before. More than that damning photo, Maria moved her hand to rest on the date and that's when it finally began to sink in. 

_ June 24, 2016 _

They had been under for twenty-five years.

* * *

Zemo’s plan was running like clockwork. Captain America and his friend had taken the super soldier bait and walked right into the hands of their enemy. Iron Man followed right behind them. They were so damn predictable. So, easy to shape and manipulate. It was a wonder that someone had not done this to them before. Tearing them apart from the inside. It wasn’t going to take much more, they seemed to have always been precariously teetering on this cliff though they didn’t know it.

Zemo did though. And he was going to make them pay. For Sokovia. For his family that hadn’t stood a chance. 

Even as Captain America came to stare him down, he was not afraid. 

As the video started playing and he watched the emotions roll over Stark’s face and then the Captain’s and Barnes he knew the truth, even if he never did anymore than this.

He had already won.

* * *

The video stopped playing, cut short by the bullet destroying the camera feed. 

Tony felt like he couldn’t breathe. His mind wasn’t processing what his eyes were telling him. He had been right. His parents had been alive. He hadn’t buried them that awful rainy day and he sure as hell hadn’t made the identification in that dank morgue. 

So many things were running through his mind that he couldn’t even begin to focus on anything but anger. 

"What the hell was that?!" Tony whirled around, at the winter soldier. Steve stepped forward then to try and stand between them and Tony brushed him away easily as he advanced upon the man. "What did you do to them? Where did you take them, huh?" He managed to shove the man back a little bit before Steve finally grabbed him and physically pulled him away. 

"Tony, calm down, he wouldn't remember, Hydra had control of his mind." Steve stated firmly, arms raised between them to intervene again if needed.

"Well, he'd better start remembering, Cap. For twenty-five years I've thought my parents died in a car accident and now…now I find out that not only did your buddy cause it, but he planted fake bodies? Took my parents somewhere else to be subjected to god knows what! Does this mean nothing to you?" Tony asked spinning on Steve now. "My father was your friend, he never stopped searching for you until the day he 'died'..."

Tony's rant cut off abruptly as he looked Steve in the eyes, eyes that stared back at him with resignation. "And you...you don't seem the slightest bit surprised," he spoke softly, awareness flickering across his features. "Did you know?"

The accusation hung silently in Tony's words, tension filling the room and nearly suffocating the occupants. 

Steve stared Tony down, blue eyes meeting brown, unwavering he spoke. 

"I didn't know it was him." 

Tony gasped and took a step back, visibly shaken by the revelation.

"How long?" 

Steve looked from Bucky to Tony and sighed. The only way out was through honesty. "Since Shield fell. There were documents...implications. I didn't know the specifics, only that Hydra had arranged the accident."

"Two years?! Two years and you couldn't think to pull me aside--" 

Steve cut him off, his own anger over his failings manifesting. "Well, we were a little busy taking down Hydra bases and fending off murderous artificial intelligence in case you've forgotten."

"No, no, no. You don't get to make that excuse. This was important shit, life altering possibly."

"And at the time, there wasn't a chance to tell you Tony. I needed your focus to be on the Avengers mission, but I promise I was going to tell you." 

Tony scoffed. "The mission? This WAS a mission and you threw it under the bus to what? Protect your friend?" Tony turned back towards Bucky but he wouldn't meet his eyes.“Do you even remember them?”

Bucky was silent for several moments. He sometimes remembered flashes when he would concentrate, but sometimes it wasn’t even a real memory, more of a feeling. Snow falling against his skin. The sound of an alarm. A flash of Howard’s face but only for a moment.

“Not enough to satisfy your questions,” he finally responded.

Steve reached out to Tony again, grabbing his forearm and Tony flinched back immediately shaking away from his grasp. “Can’t you see Tony? This is what he wants. He wants to turn us against each other,” Steve motioned to the smirking man behind the door. 

“Were we ever with each other to begin with? We’ve been at each other’s throats since we started this gig. That day on the helicarrier...Ultron...the Accords. Now this. Maybe this team isn’t meant to work.”

Steve tried not to show his hurt but he couldn’t deny that Tony was right in his assessment. They had a lot to discuss and go over about the future of the Avengers but now in the middle of Siberia was not that time or place. 

“Perhaps, I can help you answer some of your questions?” Zemo spoke through his speaker, his eyes gazing towards Tony. 

“We’re getting to you, pipsqueak, maybe zip it while the adults finish talking?”

"Anthony?" 

Tony felt his heart stop in his chest. It had been such a long time since he had heard that voice, over two decades in fact, what felt like an entire lifetime. Slowly, so slowly he made to turn to face the direction of the voice, worried that at any moment he would wake screaming from this crazy dream, back alone at the compound. Yet, as crazy as it was, there she was. His mother, Maria Stark, looking almost exactly the same as she did the last time he saw her in 1991. Confusion was evident on her soft features but hey that was going around for everyone at the moment. 

Tony took a step forward but couldn't bridge the gap towards her, afraid at any minute she’d disappear. His father stepped out from the same hallway behind Maria, same bewilderment in his eyes and Tony was sure if you held a mirror to them they wore the exact same expression.

What the fuck was going on.

"Tony?" Howard asked softly, eyes skimming over Tony's form before stopping over his shoulder, eyebrows shooting up into his hairline. "Steve?!" 

“Howard…” Steve nodded towards the man, just as bewildered as Tony was.

Tony closed his eyes. That confirmed it. Even after all these years his father was still the same man at least. His mother though...he could hear her heels clicking across the cold concrete floors, they reminded him of Pepper's chasing him out of the lab with purposeful resolve. 

He couldn't hide the flinch when he felt a soft hand caressing his cheek, thumb brushing against the bruise below his eye. "Mom?" He whispered shakily, opening his eyes to meet her kind blue ones. 

"I'm here," she whispered back in awe of this man before her. This was her son, only he wasn't that same kid she left behind. He was a man now. 

“How is this even possible?”

“Cryogenic sleep,” Howard spoke up again taking several hesitant steps forward. 

Tony ran an armored palm over his face, his brain still rejecting what he saw before him. “Oh my god this is like a bad sci-fi film,” he muttered to himself, his headache he had been keeping at bay since Germany finally bursting through the forefront of his mind, blood pounding loudly in his ears. What even was his life right now?

"This is a beautiful reunion but surely you know I did not bring you back together for this?" Zemo's voice crackled over the speaker, breaking the moment. 

Tony was back on guard immediately, his instinct telling him to protect his mother as he pulled her in behind him. 

"I couldn’t do this all on my own you know? Not without a very informative book," Zemo continued and flashed the red leather in front of the glass window. "We have some unfinished business to take care of. You killed my family Stark and now I’m going to kill yours." 

Bucky's eyes grew wide when he realized what the man possessed. "Steve, he still has it," he began desperately.

"Longing…" Zemo recited through the microphone 

Steve turned to face Bucky as his face broke apart in a grimace.

"Rusted…"

"What's going on?" Tony called exchanging a cautious look between Steve and Barnes anguished features. 

"Seventeen…"

"Steve, you guys have to get out of here," Bucky spoke through clenched teeth as Steve brought a hand to his shoulder.

"I can't leave you here, alone." Steve turned back to Tony. "He's activating the Winter Soldier again. We need to get that book from him!"

"Daybreak…"

Bucky groaned going to his knees, trying desperately to cover his ears.

"NOW TONY!" Steve yelled back when Tony hesitated.

"Right." Tony's helmet flipped back up to cover his face. He ignored his parents surprise as it came back together over him. Howard moved forward and moved Maria back from Tony to stand with him, not understanding entirely what was happening but he had an idea.

"You need to get somewhere safe,  _ now _ . Friday, find me a weak spot," Tony said as the scanner came to life, highlighting the door Zemo was hiding behind.

“The durability won’t be a problem eventually, it’s the clock you’re playing against, boss.” Friday highlighted the best points for weakening the structure in red on his HUD.

“We have to try,” he replied and went to work.

Zemo never faltered.

“Furnace…Nine...”

“Steve, the speaker!” Tony called out over his shoulder, trying to ignore Barnes’ cries as he used the laser in his suit to cut through the door.

Steve nodded, grabbing his shield and searching for the speaker output.

“Benign…”

Bucky got up and charged the door, punching at the areas where the laser was weakening with his metal arm. He could feel his mind starting to glaze over with that fog he got every time the Soldier took control. He yelled as he put everything he had behind the blows. He worried that if he succumbed again, this might be the time that Steve didn’t survive.

“Homecoming…”

“Rogers!” Howard called out, and holy shit that was really Howard Stark wasn’t it? Steve could hardly wrap his mind around it but he figured if he and Bucky could have survived all these years, he shouldn’t have been too surprised anymore.

Howard pointed to a circuit running along the top portion of the wall, and though there was no actual speaker box it was the source of the power in Zemo’s room. Howard and Maria took cover behind one of the dead soldier’s cryotanks and Steve pulled his shield back and flung it at the circuits as hard as he could.

“One…” 

“We’re through boss!” Friday shouted just as the circuitry for the speaker was severed, sparks flying over them all.

Tony’s repulsors whirred to life as he blasted the door. It folded in on itself with a loud screech pieces of metal shredding apart all around. The blast knocked Zemo back off his feet, colliding with the wall behind him, the red book he had been speaking from flung out of his hands and skid to the other side of the room. 

Bucky burst forward through the opening and snatched the smaller man up by the throat with his human arm. The man choked and gripped Bucky at the wrist as he was lifted off the ground and against the wall. He brought his metal arm back preparing to punch the man’s face in.

“Bucky, don’t!” Steve shouted over the chaos at the same time Tony jumped forward and grabbed the arm with a gauntlet, preventing the blow.

Bucky whipped his head back in shock, but Tony just shook his head.

“Barnes, you kill him and I won’t be able to save you from Ross. He’ll get what he deserves.”

Bucky stared him down, contemplating his words. He loosened his grip on Zemo but didn’t let him go. Zemo coughed as he was finally able to breathe again, gulping for oxygen greedily. He looked to Tony with a vicious scowl and choked out a broken whisper. 

“Freightcar.”

The change that fell over Barnes was immediate. His entire face was instantaneously drained of all emotion and expression. Tony felt the coldness run down his spine and took a step back releasing the man’s arm. He glanced towards Steve for guidance but his expression was pained.

Zemo laughed as he was finally released from the Winter Soldier’s grip entirely.

“Ready to comply.”

“Kill them all, Soldier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think they'd get off that easy did you? lol No worries, the next chapter wraps the CW drama and we delve into the family angst and acclimating to life 25 years in the future. Leave me your thoughts and comments down below! New chapter next monday!


	7. The Fight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess what day it is? It's Monday!!! So, here is your awaited for chapter. You all have been very patient this week and I appreciate it! Thanks as always for the love and comments. Like you don't know how often I just go back and reread the things you guys say and it just gives me a much needed boost for the week. <3 
> 
> Please continue leaving comments and kudos and let me know what you're enjoying!

Tony impacted the wall hard, head bouncing against the helmet leaving him in a daze.

Barnes- the Winter Soldier, was ridiculously powerful. He already knew from their previous encounter, but he thought he'd at least have an edge in the Iron Man suit. Instead he was being tossed around like a rag doll, no thanks to Steve either, as the star spangled man with a plan was currently laid out half unconscious feet away. 

How could Steve expect Tony to pull his punches against his friend when Barnes was literally going for the kill?

The fight had started out well enough. He and Steve may not be on the best of terms but no matter how angry they could be with the other, in a battle they worked together like a well oiled machine. You would never be able to tell the tension between them. However, even with their carefully coordinated attacks, Barnes held the advantage, his single minded nature overriding all other instincts. 

“So, how do we break this mind whammy?” Tony had asked, slowly backing away from the snarling Zemo and his new lap dog.

“You’re asking me?” Steve asked holding his shield up and crouching into a fighting stance.

“You broke it before right? A couple days ago?”

“Right. Um. Cognitive recalibration?” 

Tony turned back to glare at the man exaggeratedly, though the effect was lost behind the steely expression of the Iron Man face plate. 

“Well, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem,” he shrugged, rolling his shoulders and flicking his wrists to loosen up. His left shoulder had went from a dull throb to all out pulsing pain by with the added weight and movement of the suit, but he couldn’t afford to show any weaknesses now.

“Tony,” Steve gave him that ‘don’t disappoint Captain America, son’ tone of voice. “Take it easy on him. Bucky is still in there somewhere and we haven’t come this far just to lose him now.”

“Well, I won’t lie and say this won’t be at least a little therapeutic either.”

Before Cap could voice further disapproval, he caught a glimpse of his parent’s still hanging off to the side, exposed and vulnerable to attack. If Barnes were to go after them as seemed to be Zemo's ultimate plan...they wouldn’t stand a chance. 

“I’ll pull my punches, but we have to keep them safe at all costs,” he nodded his head towards Howard and Maria.

Steve followed the motion and nodded back. “I owe you that much, at least.”

Tony started to snark back at him but that was when the soldier launched his attack, advancing on Tony with unnatural speed and agility, metal arm coming down hard on his chest plate, denting it in slightly around the arc. . 

“Shit!” Tony jumped backwards to avoid a combination of punches and flurries. 

Steve took the opportunity to launch his shield at the man, only for him to smack it away like it were a plastic frisbee and block Steve’s incoming blows. He kept him distracted though and landed several hits though it seemed to only serve to piss the soldier off even more. With the soldier thoroughly engrossed with Cap, Tony used his repulsors to glide the short distance to his bewildered parents.

“I really mean it this time, you guys have got to hide somewhere safe. Pick a room and stay there.”

“We’ve had our share of run ins with the winter soldier before, we’re not quite as helpless as you’d like to think,” Howard countered, determination set on his face. He might not have some high powered metal suit or a super soldier serum but he and Maria weren’t helpless children either.

“I’m sure you have, and we’ll have a great big shared trauma group meeting when we get out of here, but right now you’re a liability. To Cap and me. Please for once in your life Howard, listen to me.”

Howard recoiled and definitely looked like he wanted to start an argument, here in the middle of Siberia, twenty five years after he 'died', with Steve battling it out in the background with his PTSD ridden bff. He seemed to think better of it though when Maria fixed him with a stern look, choking down whatever words he wanted to say. Tony escorted them to the nearest room with strict instructions to barricade themselves in. It wouldn’t provide much resistance against an assassin, super soldier but even just a couple of seconds could be a turning point in battle.

Maria ran a hand across the Iron Man helmet and Tony tried not to turn into the touch, even though he couldn’t actually feel it. “Be careful.”

“Always,” he whispered and rejoined the fight.

That was how Tony found himself backed up against the wall in a daze, his left boot jet barely functioning and one repulsor down.

"Boss lookout!" Friday broke through his daze and his focus was drawn back to the man coming after him, grabbing and punching at the reactor, trying to crush it. He must have finally figured out that was Tony’s power source and it was all Tony could do to slap his hands away from it, though it had begun to spark and crumble.

When all this was over he’d have to see if he could study Barnes’ mechanical arm’s strength and see how comparable it was to Steve. Crushing the arc with his hand alone was almost impressive.

“Friday, deploy flares!”

The flares deployed and blinded Barnes long enough for Tony’s working repulsor to blast the man a safe distance away before delivering a couple of punches to the man's face that he essentially shook off as he blindly swung back.

“Cognitive recalibration, my ass,” Tony mumbled. He’d hit the man upside the head more times than he could count and that was even including when a blast caused concrete from the ceiling to fall on top of him. 

Steve had tried talking sense into Bucky, to get him to remember, even removing his cowl which had supposedly worked before but that was how the man now found himself crumpled on the ground, his shield on the ground several feet away.

Barnes seemed to notice it at the same as Tony and snatched it up and flung it towards Tony. Thankfully, Friday made his reflexes faster and he was able to mostly catch it, lessening the impact to the chest plate but that was when Barnes made his next move, grabbing at the suit and lifting it over his head like he weighed nothing and slamming him into the concrete pillars.

“I thought they only did that in the WWE,” Tony groaned and coughed as he tried to sit up.

The Winter Soldier was relentless though slamming him back down and snatching the shield up from where Tony had dropped it and raising it up over his head. The attack was too fast for Tony to do anything but raise his hands in defense as the soldier brought Captain America's shield down hard against the arc reactor. The reactor sparked as the already weakened casing was crushed, the shield settling right in the middle of the piece. 

Tony could feel as the shield pierced nearly all the way through his armor, enough to knock the air from his chest. The power in the suit flickered even further as damage information appeared on the HUD and Friday shouted information to him as he tried to gain his bearings back. 

The suit was nearly disabled but the reactor was hanging in there, even as the soldier pulled the shield from his chest and raised it again. 

"Friday, put everything we’ve got in the chest piece now!" He shouted as the blow this time came for his helmet and rocked him against the concrete.

"It will take a minute to calibrate, the chest piece is badly damaged Boss!" The AI panicked.

"We don't have a minute!" He shouted back.

“Diverting backup power,” she responded.

Tony morbidly wondered if he was about to be murdered in front of his father by his own design as another blow rained down on his suit.

* * *

Howard watched from his and Maria's hiding room as Barnes knocked Steve Rogers away like a fly and turned the assault back against his son, shaking off blinding flares and punches, lifting him over his head and slamming him viciously down. 

He had always had high esteem for Tony’s inventions, whether he allowed himself to show that pride or not, and he could only trust that this mechanical creation was just as tough and durable but there was still a person inside of it and a person could only take so much.

His mind was made up.

Howard hated being powerless more than anything in his life. He had been powerless before as a child and again when he'd been captured by Hydra. He wasn't going to just sit back and let his son be killed by the monster Barnes had been reverted into.

"Don't move," he firmly ordered Maria, ignoring her questioning look and springing forward. He swiped up a metal pipe from the ground as he raced to save Tony.

* * *

The helmet was flung off after the third strike and Tony began to feel real fear. Cap was beginning to stir from his place on the ground but no way would he be able to make it before Barnes delivered his blow. The damn chest piece was charging too slowly.

Barnes raised the shield up high over his head ready to bring it down once and for all when Tony caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

“No, don’t,” he hoarsely whispered but it was too late.

Before Barnes could bring the shield down again Howard came behind him and swung at the man with all of his might, metal piping connecting with the back of his head. Barnes merely flinched and pitched forward slightly like some kind of Terminator and Tony could see the anger in his eyes shift to his father. Howard still stood behind him, panting a little at the exertion but held his ground when Barnes turned to stare him down. 

“Friday?” Tony whispered.

“10 seconds boss,” she chirped in his ear piece. The reactor whirred to life and glowed as the power was finally filtered through in preparation for the attack. 

“Dad, get out of the way!!!!” Tony shouted and watched his father scramble out of the path. 

The soldier turned back to his target at the sounds of the suit powering up. The arc glowed a bright blue, sparks emanating and crackling around it from where it had been damaged.

“Now Friday!” Tony said and the suit fired at Barnes with all the energy that was left. The blast was powerful enough to send him flying backwards off of Tony, a cry of pain echoing in the air as first his body crashed to the ground and then his detached metal arm clattering behind him, still gripping Cap’s shield in its fist.

The suit became nearly dead weight as soon as the blast was fired and Tony groaned under the pressure as the weight collapsed against him. Aldrich Killian’s words came back to him then for the first time in years. “Feeling trapped? Like a little turtle in his shell?” Tony groaned and gritted out his command.

“Friday, let me out of here before the power shuts off completely.” 

Friday complied immediately and Tony gasped as the suit opened up for him and the pressure was relieved from his aching chest. “Is he down?” Tony called out as Steve finally regained himself, pulling his own battered body from the ground.

Steve gave Bucky a once over but he appeared to be out cold as he approached him. “Jeez Tony, I said to pull our punches.” Steve made sure his tone was light enough for Tony to tell he was trying to tease but he was genuinely concerned for his friend as he reached over and felt for his weakened pulse. 

“Yeah, well, it was either that or have my brain splattered all over your pretty shield,” Tony grunted back as he gingerly pulled himself into a sitting position, damaged ribs screaming at him with every wrong twist of his body.

“Fair,” Steve replied, pulling the shield out of the metal hands grasp.

“Speaking of dumb decisions, _Howard,_ what the hell did you think you were doing?” Tony asked turning his attention now to his father. 

Howard sighed as he got back on his feet and walked towards his son. “Saving your ass, kid.”

He offered Tony a hand and watched the indecision flicker across the younger man’s face before reaching out with his right hand and accepting the help. Tony groaned and faltered a bit as he stood but Howard’s grip was strong in his keeping him upright. He shrugged away any further attempts for his father to support him though, immediately stepping away from his grasp when he was safely vertical. 

“Though I guess you’re not really a kid anymore, huh?”

“Not lately, no,” Tony responded massaging his left arm. It hurt like a bitch. He definitely worsened that sprain.

Tony could still hardly believe his father was standing before him. The man was solid and real beneath his grasp. There had been many times that Tony had wished for this very moment to express his frustrations or anger or even just to talk to him and ask questions. Now that it was happening, Tony wanted nothing more than to run away from the man and the multitude of conflicting emotions. 

“Howard…” Steve said, coming to stand beside the two Stark men. 

He looked back and forth between the pair unsure how much to say but he wanted to take the time to express at least some gratefulness. He knew what the unending search for him had done to widen the chasm between the pair. Tony didn’t talk much about it, in fact everything he knew had been practically pried out of the man or gleaned from stories the rest of the team had been told.

Steve held his hand out to the older man who both looked so much like and so different from the man that he had known. Howard took Steve’s hand in his and squeezed firmly, like it was a business transaction.

“Thank you for never giving up the search. I might never have been found if it wasn’t for your devotion.”

Tony scoffed and rolled his eyes, walking away to inspect his damaged suit.

Howard watched him go, longing in his eyes. Steve knew his thanks would never be enough, but perhaps there was some way to split the difference. That was if he and Tony were even going to be on speaking terms after this either.

“I always knew you were out there, Cap,” Howard replied and patted the man’s shoulder. “Just happy to have some vindication for all the naysayers. Whatever remains of them, anyways.”

Steve could sympathize. 

“Let me give you some advice, having done the whole ‘man out of time’ thing myself,” he grinned and nodded ever so slightly to the younger Stark. “Don’t waste this opportunity. It’s going to be tough, but it will be worse if your fight it instead of embracing it.”

Howard casually glanced towards Tony as well before refocusing on Cap’s piercing stare. “Don’t worry. I long resigned myself to stop making the same mistakes.”

* * *

"Okay, Cap let's talk clean up. We need to catch Zemo and get him turned into Ross if you even want a prayer of getting your buddy off the most wanted list.”

"He could be countries away by now, Tony. Our priority has gotta be getting Bucky somewhere safe. I'm not sure if his programming will be reset or not and we can't risk him getting loose."

"There should be some sedatives in the med kit of the Quinjet you “borrowed.” That ought to ensure sleeping beauty stays down for 24 hours at least. Zemo has got to be the priority here though or he could make even more trouble for us."

"Don't worry about the man, " a smooth voice spoke across the room as T'Challa made his entrance still in his Black Panther attire.

“The hell, kitty cat? Where have you been hiding?” Tony muttered as he dragged an unconscious Zemo behind him.

“I followed you here. I knew you were the best chance to find him,” T’Challa motioned to Bucky. “I heard what this one said though, realized I almost killed an innocent man for vengeance. I caught him trying to escape. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“You’ve been here all this time and you couldn’t help us with him?” Tony asked pointing underhandedly to the soldier. 

T’Challa gave him a look. “Would you rather this man got away?”

“No, no, that’s great but that took what like five minutes, while we were getting our asses handed to us?”

T’Challa laughed which only served to annoy Tony further. “You seemed to have it under control." 

“Barely,” Tony muttered rubbing at his arm again. They needed to wrap this up and get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Tony was used to pain but this was just ridiculous.

“I have been thinking about your situation, Captain. Why don’t you let me bring him back with me to Wakanda? I think my sister may be able to find a way to help your friend.”

Steve perked up immediately. “You think there’s a way to reverse what Hydra did to him?”

“Perhaps. If we are unable to help him with our technology then I’m not sure that anything can be done.”

Steve considered his options. He was still technically on the run. That much was still clear and Bucky needed somewhere to lay low. If there was even the hope of reversing the damage done to his mind he knew he had to take it. He didn’t like leaving Tony holding the bag again though. He had to make amends for the last few days. He sighed and turned to Tony.

“What do you think?”

Tony glowered back at him. “So, now you want my opinion, Cap?”

Steve sighed. “Tony…”

“No, no it’s fine. Just making sure.” Agitation was evident in his features as he mulled the scenario over, his eyes flickering between the two men on the ground. “It might be our best option if they really can help. I assume you’ll want to go with him?” Steve nodded. “I suppose I can try and stall Ross then, but Steve it’s not going to be easy. You’re still wanted.”

“He will be safe within our borders,” T’Challa assured.

“I don’t doubt it but are you sure this is a risk your country can take? If Ross finds out…”

“He won’t.”

Tony shook his head in acknowledgement. “I’ll do what I can...for you and the others...and I won’t give up your friend, but Steve I gotta tell you, it may come down to you being forced to do something you don’t want to...like signing the Accords.”

Steve nodded his head. He figured as much. He still didn’t like the Accords and thought they were more hinder than help but if he was going to continue being an Avenger he didn’t have a choice. He would have to trust that Tony knew what he was doing. “I’ll do it.”

“Now why couldn’t you be this amenable 48 hours ago?” Steve just rolled his eyes. There was no point responding to that. “Right then, T’Challa can I trust you to deliver our friend Zemo to the proper authorities? Steve, if you don’t mind, we could use a ride back to the Compound before you head off, my suit is a little...indisposed at the moment."

Steve nodded and then quietly leaned forward to speak. "What are you going to do with Howard and your mother?"

"Oh, you know, just figured I'd throw em back into cryo sleep for another twenty odd years. What do you think I’m going to do? I'm bringing them back to the compound." 

Tony looked back over his shoulder to where his mother stood, lingering on the outskirts of their circle, sending occasional glances towards Tony, still in utter disbelief, before switching to watching as his father shamelessly examined the dead Iron Man suit. 

"No one can know. Not yet," Tony spoke through his clenched jaw. "If Ross ever caught wind of this…" He couldn't finish his thought because he knew exactly what that man would do. Cryogenically frozen missing weapons manufacturer suddenly found at a Hydra base? He'd have them both incarcerated on the Raft within the hour. Tony would be damned if he let that happen. He had to protect them as long as he could, but he would need help.

"I understand Tony." 

Tony turned to T'Challa as well and he nodded too. He hadn't stayed around for the entire fight, too concentrated on heading off Zemo's escape, but he knew the kind of issues the couple's sudden reappearance could cause.

"Thanks. You guys go ahead and load up the kids and I'll corral the nursing home over here. Oh and Cap, if you don't mind a little assistance with my suit. I'd rather not drag it all the way out there if you don't mind."

With that everyone went about their assigned tasks. Tony slowly wandered over to his parents side. God he felt like pinching himself every time he saw them, to remind himself that this was real. 

Maria turned to him with a smile and reached out a hand to him. He took her smaller hand in his and noted the coldness of it. He rubbed her hand in his to bring some warmth back into the limb. 

"Did you figure everything out?" 

Tony chewed the bottom of his lip, still looking at her hand in his. "Mostly. We're all going to get outta here. Take you guys home with me and we'll figure the rest out along the way."

"Is this a miniaturized arc reactor powering this tin can?" Howard called behind him, still taking in the new technology.

"Titanium alloy actually, not tin and yeah, it is. You know you really shouldn't mess with all that."

"I knew you would be the one to figure it out," Howard spoke quietly under his breath but Tony heard him and wasn't that an alarming notion. Tony hadn’t heard a positive praise from his father since he was searching for a cure for his palladium poisoning. Even longer before that. 

Tony tucked his head down, chin against his chest and looked anywhere but at his father. Maria squeezed his hand knowingly while Howard obliviously continued his assessment. 

"So, this suit...what are you, some kind of superhero or something?" Howard's tone was conversational but curious. 

"Or something," Tony snorted in derision, memories of Rhodey plummeting to the ground, just out of his grasp, filling his mind. He certainly didn't feel like a hero lately. 

"Are you working with Shield?" Howard knew that by now his secret organization had to have been revealed at least to his son after his presumed death. He hadn't wanted them to get their hands on Tony, he always knew he was destined for better things, but he couldn't think of anyone else that could have found Steve Rogers or reigned in whatever his son had become. 

Tony hesitated briefly. "Not anymore."

"But you did?"

"Consulting," he offered with a shrug of his shoulder. It wasn't entirely inaccurate. 

Howard could tell that Tony was holding back information but for once he didn't pry. There was so much that he had missed, information in small doses seemed to be best. Not that he thought there could be anything much more shocking than waking up to find that the world had passed him by, and his irresponsible son was now a grown man. A good one it would seem too. Much better than Howard thought he'd ever been.

"Ma, you're freezing," Tony whispered to her. She was clad only in long a skirt and a thin, rumpled blouse, blazer long lost to time. He carefully removed his leather jacket, wincing only when he had to remove it from his stiffening left side, and wrapped his mother in it without a second thought. 

"Normally you're the one who forgets to wear a jacket," Maria joked weakly but it made Tony grin. 

"Well, I think you’re excused due to extenuating circumstances. Let's get you guys out of here now, unless you'd rather live out your days as popsicles in Siberia. We have a quinjet waiting outside. Cap and T'Challa should be squared away with our...guests by now."

"Quinjet?" Maria echoed.

"You’ll love it. It was originally developed by Shield but has recently been upgraded with all the latest Stark Industries bells and whistles. Not to mention it’ll get you anywhere you need to go in less than half the time," he pitched like an expert salesman.

"And where are we going in half the time?" 

"Upstate New York. Home sweet home."

* * *

Tony made sure his parents were settled before pulling the Stark phone from his jeans pocket. It had survived the battle unscathed, just as it was designed for. He glanced around, Howard was seated close to Cap and the two were chatting animatedly, no doubt catching up on lost time. His mother looked very close to dozing beside his father. 

His finger hovered over the contact information on the screen, wavering over whether or not to call. It had been a long time since he'd heard that voice, almost three months in fact, but he'd wanted her to have her space and not to worry after him. They'd texted a few times and emailed but mostly only in regards to the company. She had said if he ever needed her just to call...and man he needed her now. 

Before he could change his mind, Tony pressed the call button over Pepper's picture and angled his body away from his companions as the phone began to ring. He placed the phone in the crook of his neck and popped the cap off of a bottle of Tylenol he'd swiped from the med kit and dry swallowed a couple pills as he waited for Pepper to answer the phone.

He’d rather die than admit it but his arm was killing him. It throbbed and ached with every heartbeat and he knew it had to have been injured further, but there was nothing he could do about it for now except wait out the ride to the compound.

The phone continued to ring and Tony's confidence started to falter until finally he heard a familiar click only for her voicemail to begin to play. He still couldn’t deny the hitch in his chest as he heard that voice again though. God he missed her.

_"You've reached Pepper Potts. I will be in and out of meetings the week of June 24th. Please leave a voicemail and I will get back to you. For press inquiries and requests please contact my assistant at 555-0618. Thank you."_

Tony took as deep a breath he could with his injured ribs, as the beep played in his ear. He could do this.

"Hey...it's me. I, uh, know we haven't talked in a long time...my fault…but boy I could really use your help right now. I'm sure by now you've heard about Rhodey and the others. Also probably my fault. God it's all such a mess. That's not the only thing though. Some...people have come back into my life and I don't know how to make heads or tails of it and I could really use your level head and advice that I'm sure I'll just completely disregard. If you can't come or won’t...it’s okay I understand. I just could really use a friend and I don't have anyone else…"

Tony pulled the phone away from his ear and ended the call, carefully rubbing at his forehead, taking steadying breaths to keep from completely falling apart. He felt the tears that had gathered in his eyes threatening to spill over, and he would be damned if he was going to start crying in front of Steve or his father. 

Unbeknownst to him, Maria watched her son silently with one eye open from the other side of the quinjet. She hadn’t been able to hear his conversation but his body language told her more than enough about his state of mind. She wondered, not for the first time, about the kind of man her son had become. Did he have a wife? Children? What was he doing in a flying metal suit fighting bad guys? She wanted to ask him everything but he was already overwhelmed and hurting, she could tell. It had been a long day for all of them so she just pulled his leather jacket a little closer around her and allowed herself to be carried off to a peaceful sleep.

* * *

Pepper pulled the phone away from her ear with a tear sliding down her face. 

Tony was alive. He was safe. A little worse for wear and tear sounding but after all the news had come out about the Avengers battle in Germany and being contacted by Vision of all people about Rhodey’s fall and subsequent injuries, she had begun to fear the worst. 

She leaned forward and knocked on the privacy glass between her and her temporary driver. Happy was still in Germany and she thought that had been a good thing, that he was taking care of Tony but she had spoke to him earlier in the day and he hadn’t heard anything either.

“Yes, Ms. Potts?”

“Change of plans, not going home tonight.”

“Where to then?”

Pepper took a deep, calming breath. Tony needed her. 

“Upstate to the Compound, please.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, hello Pepper!! Welcome to the story. <3


	8. The Compound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S MONDAY!!! Have almost 7k of content to get you through your day! This chapter is very conversation heavy as our main action has tapered off and we begin to enter into the family issues! We pick up by doing some minimal backtracking and see what Pepper has been into. <3
> 
> Also, there is a video making the rounds of an alternate cut of Howard's "Greatest Creation" speech from IM2 and though I see why it was cut it further reinforces how I feel about Howard and that I am justified in my characterization. He tells Tony in the video that he is most proud of him and that he loves him and he is holding him and just looking at him in awe all throughout the video. SO. SOFT. I encourage you to look it up if Disney hasn't obliterated it from the world yet.
> 
> As always thanks for the comments and love and please see the end of the chapter for more interesting notes!

It had been nearly three months since Pepper had set foot back into the Avengers compound in upstate New York. After she and Tony had separated she just didn’t have any reason to be there anymore. She was still friends with the team, but it had never been much more than superficial courtesy with the exception of Rhodey and maybe Natasha. Anything that was needed of her here now was strictly in relation to Stark Industries and even that had always been handled by Tony and still was, though with minimal additional contact between them aside from the absolute necessary.

The break up hadn’t been a horrible one. She and Tony had split still on good terms and a recognition that they would still need to be able to interact fairly often where the company intertwined their lives. Even while she had been in tears explaining that she would always care for him, Tony had just watched her with a reserved countenance, a tight smile plastered on his face as if he had been waiting to hear these words since they had kissed on that rooftop six years ago. 

Pepper had worried afterwards that it would only be a matter of time before the self destructive streak that had always defined Tony Stark, would rear its ugly head. She spent the first few days waiting for a concerned phone call or two from Happy or Rhodey about Tony drinking or overworking and not sleeping. Maybe even a return to womanizing. Instead she was pleasantly surprised. As time continued on, there were no ill tabloid reports, no whispers in the halls of SI of scandals or rumors. 

Tony showed up on time to R&D meetings that he had promised to attend before, and he appeared well groomed, no wrinkled suits, no whiskey on the breath, not even a hair out of place. While he had never been much of an active participant, he was attentive and posing appropriate questions when needed to show he was listening. He even managed to work in an odd joke or two and it was like nothing had changed. Tony even attended on his own to the few fundraisers and charity events that she had been able to talk him into from when they were still a couple. 

At first it drove her insane. It shouldn’t have. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. Tony was going above and beyond to make sure that he honored all their previous commitments and he did it without her hovering over him to make sure he didn’t get lost in a project or an armor modification. And maybe that was part of the problem. He seemed to be doing just fine without her, while she was struggling to adjust to life without him. Tony wasn’t playing the part of the spoiled child anymore and it had taken her leaving to force him to take responsibility. It had made her wonder if he really hadn’t needed her at all. 

However, she had been in a relationship with him for over six years and worked closely beside him for another ten before that. Eventually she began to see through the facade. Tony may have been taking care of himself and his commitments and carefully avoiding her with a smile and a passing “Miss Potts,” whispered in acknowledgment when they were stuck in the same boardroom or event, the mask was crumbling. She picked up on the clipped words and how any of his normally charming flirtations fell flat, uttered more out of habit than anything else. He stared off in thought more and not like he normally would when bored or itching to get back to a project. There was a storm behind those dark brown eyes and she knew then, it was because of her. 

Pepper was fairly sure that he hadn’t even been out on any missions with the team lately. He continued upgrading the teams suits and weapons and any needs in relation, doing everything he could  _ except _ joining them, according to Rhodey, which was odd in itself. 

Everything had seemed to come to a head at the announcement of the Sokovia Accords. A document that had been a long time coming, probably initially drafted all the way back during Tony’s Senate hearings when the government was desperate to take his suit. The revelation of more enhanced “heroes” and gods and aliens had left the world further on edge, with Ultron and Sokovia being the final nails in the coffin.

Pepper knew first hand how much Sokovia had affected Tony. The nightmares had spiked, more intense than they had been before, and with it his guilt. So, he had poured himself and his money into the Stark Relief Foundation, providing food, shelter and assistance to the citizens and assisting in the relocation efforts of the families. “To ease the guilt,” he had whispered to her one night when she found him working through the middle of the night. 

It therefore bore little shock to Pepper when Tony had sent her a text message one day, simply stating,  _ “I’m going to sign.” _

It was the first time they had spoken aside from their brief, polite exchanges at work. It wasn’t too surprising. Pepper had always been a sounding board for the more difficult decisions he sometimes had to make. 

_ "I think that’s a smart decision. Doesn’t seem like something that can be avoided for any longer.” _

_ “Let’s hope they all feel the same.” _

She hadn’t responded after that. 

Pepper was on her way into the SI offices when information about the bombing in Vienna began to come in. Hundreds were injured and dozens dead. Information was coming in slowly and though members of the Avengers were supposed to have been present, no one could establish who or if they were among the injured or dead.

Anxiety pooled in her bones and adrenaline had her pulling out her phone and hovering her finger over the call button before taking a deep breath and shooting out a quick text message instead.

_ “Are you okay?” _

Simple enough to show her concerns without being overbearing. She had eagerly awaited the reply, every second that passed by feeling like a lifetime as she paced in front of the floor to ceiling windows of her office. When her phone had finally chirped in reply she nearly jumped out of her skin, fumbling to open her message.

_ “I’m okay. Wasn’t there, helping with clean up from Berlin…” _

The audible sigh of relief did little to completely quell her anxiety. She needed more information. She wasn’t used to not knowing every detail of what Tony was doing anymore. Pepper had micromanaged his days for over a decade and this newfound distance was still strange and cold, so she fired another message back to him, not caring what might be implied by the rapid response. 

_ “Do you know who did it?” _

_ “We have an idea.”  _ Came the equally fast reply from Tony, though the vagueness was new.

_ “Be careful…” _

_ “Active non-combatant. They are getting Tony Stark, not Iron Man.” _

_ “All the same.” _

It took longer for his next message to be received. If she closed her eyes she could almost picture him typing on his phone, maybe leaned up against a desk or table because Tony did not sit when his adrenaline was pumping, like she knew that it was. He’d be wearing a suit, a normal suit, not Iron man, maybe Armani or Tom Ford, if it were true and he really was just consulting. If he were really stressed his jacket would be unbuttoned or off, tossed haphazardly onto a chair or table, tie loosened around his neck. She could picture him so vividly she could almost smell the warm, smokey musk of that ridiculously priced cologne he knew she loved. 

Pepper’s reverie was broken as his final message chirped from her phone. 

_ “It’s good to hear from you.”  _

She felt herself smile, her heart fluttering in her chest a little. She’d be lying if she said that she didn’t miss Tony. It was nice to know that the feeling was mutual. 

_ “You too. Call me if you ever need me.” _

After that all manner of chaos had broken loose. There had been a falling out with the Avengers that culminated in a knock down, drag out fight in Germany. Stills and bits of security footage had circulated all the major news networks and led to many phone calls to Pepper requesting her comments on the break in the team. She didn’t have an answer. Not that she would have given her thoughts to the press anyways but again she found herself lacking any knowledge or information about what was really going on and that made her worry worse than knowing ever had. 

It only became worse after it was announced that Rhodey had been critically injured in the scuffle and Vision informed her of the complete details. Pepper decided then that she needed to find out what was going on. Tony hadn’t replied to any of her frantic texts and even when she grew brave enough to call it never reached him. She had thought after the other day that they had made progress in this new friendship of sorts. Like anything with Tony it seemed to be one step forward, two steps back. 

She hadn’t been expecting the voicemail. 

“Friday?”

“Yes, boss lady?”

“What’s Tony’s ETA?”

“Four hours.”

Pepper sighed. Of course it was that long. 

Well, she may as well make herself at home while she waits then. She said a silent prayer of thanks that she hadn’t moved her clothing out of their shared room yet. She wanted to be completely comfortable whenever Tony arrived and dropped the latest bomb on her. 

Unless…

“Fri..” she started out nervously. For a moment she wasn’t sure if she wanted to know the answer but she forced herself to press on. “Do I still have access to our...his room?”

Each of the Avengers individual quarters were coded to their own biometrics. Tony could have removed her and then she’d be stuck in this uncomfortable suit until he showed up.

“Of course. Boss has not rescinded any of your permissions throughout the compound.”

Pepper smiled softly. It was a relief to know after everything he still trusted her. 

“Keep me updated to his movements will you?”

“Of course.”

Pepper made her way down the silent halls, nerves on end, but fully ready to fight the world if needed for the only man she had ever loved.

* * *

It was nearly two in the morning when the Quinjet made its final approach to the Avenger’s Compound. The lights in the main building were already on and glowing as Friday brought up the lights for the landing pad as they made their descent. 

The elder Stark’s had been asleep for the last half of the journey, Howard finally joining his wife and nodding off during one of Steve’s stories about the Howling Commandos. They had talked for most of the ride before that about almost everything, like how Shield had finally found him four years ago and how hard it was adjusting to this new life. The one subject that they never broached though was Tony. Howard looked like he wanted to ask Steve questions but always held back at the last moment, his eyes flashing to where Tony sat in silence, alternating between constantly checking his phone and feigning his own sleep. 

As Steve engaged the landing protocols, the slight turbulence and change in altitude was enough to bring everyone but the still sedated Bucky around. 

Howard’s eyes searched across the entire grounds of the compound, taking in the sleek infrastructures. “Where are we?”

“Home,” Tony’s voice echoed out behind them. “Not bad, huh?” He hadn’t moved from his spot, head still leaned back against his seat, eyes closed. His right arm was across his chest clutching his shoulder. 

Howard narrowed his eyes and wanted to ask if he was okay but he had a feeling he wouldn’t get a straight answer right now so he went with a safer response. “It’s big.”

Tony snorted but a small smirk flickered across his face as he finally opened his eyes. Tony pulled his phone out of his jeans again but he knew there were no missed calls or messages. He knew Pepper’s silence was his own fault but it still didn’t take away the sting. He got to his feet and stretched gingerly, his aching ribs and the stiffness of his arm preventing much relief. The Tylenol he took had helped to dull some of the aches and pains but he could already feel the meager effects wearing off.

“Okay, everyone out of the pool,” he joked as the back of the aircraft opened out to a walkway. 

Howard offered a tired Maria his hand and helped pull her to her feet. She offered him a kind smile and leaned into him a little as they made their way forward.

“How’s our prisoner, Cap?” Tony asked as Steve briefly examined his friend.

Cap shot him a disapproving gaze. “He’s not a prisoner. He seems to be okay though. The sedative is still holding well. Where are you wanting this?” he asked, pointing to the still disabled Iron Man suit. 

“Just drop it in the elevator to my lab. I can handle it from there and see what can be salvaged.”

“Maybe you should look into ways of making it more compact,” Steve grunted as he lifted the armor.

“I have some ideas.” 

They all moved down the ramp of the quinjet, Tony slightly further ahead with his parents and Steve trailing behind. As they grew closer to the entrance Tony thought that Friday opened the doors for them, only for a figure to appear in the doorway. Tony’s gait faltered and then stopped completely. Had they been walking a little closer Howard and Maria would have ran right into him as the group bunched up on the walkway.

Steve squinted his eyes against the bright lights to see what the hold up was when the figure moved out of the shadow of the door and he realized why the younger man had stopped dead. 

Pepper Potts always was a cutting figure in sharp business attire, but even as she approached them slowly in sweats and a t-shirt that almost certainly had been Tony’s at one time or another, she was no less intimidating, her eyes looking Steve up and down like he was a criminal. He supposed she was right. He took a cursory step backwards just in case she turned her ire on him.

“Hey, Pep…” Tony finally uttered out, voice gravelly and low.

Pepper’s features softened as she turned her attention from Steve to Tony and she offered a small smile, though it did nothing to belay the worry in her eyes as she seemed to assess his injuries. She came to a stop a few feet in front of the group and Tony longed to close the gap between them and kiss her senseless from sheer relief. However, those days of privilege were long over.

“What are-- what are you doing here?” he stuttered out.

She smiled softly. “I got your voicemail,” she simply offered.

Tony nodded his head because of course she had gotten the voicemail. Instead of a simple call back or text like he had been expecting she had actually taken the time out to come all the way out to the compound like he knew she hated, the distance from the city always drove her nuts, and still, here she stood. Never let it be said that Pepper didn’t go above and beyond in all areas of her life. 

“I wasn’t sure you would come."

“Of course I would, Tony. You’re still my friend.”

Tony might have felt put out at being called a friend but before his traitorous heart could complain Pepper took that opportunity to close the gap between them and suddenly she was in his arms. This is not a drill. Her arms around his neck and hugging him to her gently, mindful of injuries she could already discern just from a glance. He closed his eyes and inhaled that sweet intoxicating smell that was so uniquely Pepper, soft and warm, and brought his good arm around to hug her back. This was the most physical contact that they had had in months and it felt so good to be in her arms. She always made him feel safe, his problems so far away, when she would hold him like this. All too soon Pepper pulled away from him and he instantly mourned the loss of body around him.

Pepper took in the group behind him, shocked to realize that she recognized the duo over his shoulder. And how could she not? 

Her first day at Stark Industries and every subsequent day after she had been met by their oversized portrait in the lobby. At first it was intimidating and daunting to pass by the unseeing eyes of the former CEO and his wife. He was all hard lines and angles, mouth in a sternly set line, looking every inch the fearful weapons manufacturer he was. Then there was his wife. Soft smile, round edges, kind, expressive eyes. Eyes that reminded her of Tony's own. Maria Stark balanced Howard Stark's firmness out in a perfect yin and yang. When she became Tony’s PA she could see how he carried both of their personas, stern, arrogant and proud as he sealed a business deal, then soft and caring and charming when he was with his friends. 

She looked expectantly at Tony, her features carefully schooled as she tried to figure out what the hell was going on. "And the people who recently came back into your life?"

"Oh, um...yeah. Pepper Potts, may I introduce to you my recently thawed and not so deceased parents, Howard and Maria Stark." 

Pepper was still in shock but her business instinct quickly took over and she reached a hand out to the pair, catching Tony's eye with a look that indicated she was going to need the full story later. He nodded his head slightly and continued the introductions as his parents reciprocated Pepper's gesture. 

Maria Stark was sharp though and studying other people was her talent. She grasped Pepper’s warm hand in hers as she smiled reassuringly. “Very tactful, darling. Maybe next time you should ease a gal into the back from the dead portion? Bless Anthony’s heart but he is terrible at introductions, even though I know I taught him better,” she chided her son with a grin, satisfied when his cheeks turned pink. 

Pepper smiled back a little bit of relief going through her body. Maria Stark was a woman just like any other that she had met. There was no reason to feel so intimidated inside. “I am all too familiar with his eccentricities and flare for the dramatic I’m afraid.”

“Apologies for all of my shortcomings, let me try again,” he said while rolling his eyes. "Mom, Howard, this is Pepper Potts, my...friend and the current acting CEO of the foremost tech conglomerate in the world... Stark Industries." 

Howard's grip faltered in Pepper's hand as he processed what Tony said. A woman was running Stark Industries and not even one from blood or marriage from what he could tell by her empty ring finger, though he already got the feeling there was a little more history there with his son. Pepper adjusted her grip in his and she stared him down with a fire he hadn't seen the likes of since Peggy Carter, letting him know exactly how little bullshit she was prepared to take if he had a problem with the appointment. That actually made him smile. He always had a soft spot for strong women in his life.

"You must be a pretty exceptional individual to be running Stark Industries," Howard offered politely, but sincerely.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark," she responded kindly in the tone she normally reserved for the old guard of SI's board members. 

She wasn’t quite sure where she stood with the elder Stark. He had been a brilliant mind and successfully founded and ran Stark Industries until his death. He was a beloved public figure. However, he was also Tony’s father and having been privy to some of his lowest moments, usually on the anniversary of their supposed deaths, she had witnessed enough of the complicated relationship between the two men. Howard could be a divisive figure. One moment a source of pride and the next anger. Pepper could only imagine how Tony was feeling. She knew she had made the right choice in coming out here. He was going to need all the help that he could get. 

“Howard, please. Mr. Stark was my father,” the man answered her with a grin she knew all too well. She wasn’t sure if that made this meeting easier or more surreal. 

"I think it's amazing for Stark Industries to have a female CEO," Maria added. "For years I told Howard that the company needed to diversify and bring in some new life. Get rid of those stuffy old shirts that have been there since the dawn of time. A business needs fresh, new perspectives to thrive. You seem exactly the kind of person I had in mind."

Pepper smiled warmly and a small blush graced her freckled cheeks. “Well, considering all of the admirable philanthropic work you did, I probably wouldn’t be where I am without people like you helping to pave the way.”

“She is definitely a keeper,” Maria laughed, nudging Tony gently.

Tony and Pepper’s eyes met briefly and Tony thought her blush deepened and he couldn’t help but smile. It was difficult to get Pepper flustered and he could only hope that she wasn’t offended by his mother’s implication. He couldn’t help but be reminded of a conversation from long ago, before their break and Ultron when the future was so exciting and full of possibilities for their relationship.

Pepper had asked him one night in bed if he thought that his mother would have approved of their match. 

He didn’t even have to give it a thought.  _ “She would have absolutely loved you.” _

Tony winked at Pepper as her gaze continued to linger on him a little too long, maybe remembering the same night, the same conversation. 

Then, as often was the case, Howard poured cold water over their entire comfortable conversation.

“So, what happened to Obie? Is he still around?”

Tony actually shivered at the mention of his former mentor’s name. He hadn’t given that man a second thought in years.

“Jesus Howard, I’m going to have to get you CliffsNotes for the last couple decades. Maybe I’ll have Friday make you a powerpoint, that would be amusing,” Tony muttered narrowly avoiding the question and deciding that was as good an excuse as any to end this gathering party and head inside, Pepper falling into step beside him.

“At risk of being subjected to further sarcasm,” Howard began as they entered the building, “who is Friday?”

"Only the hardest working gal in the room, no offense Pep," he immediately turned toward Pepper.

"None taken. She has to deal with you 24/7, no offense," she winked back at him. 

For a moment it was like old times again. 

"Friday is my Artificial Intelligence. She runs everything. The compound, my suit, my life, as Pepper so delicately mentioned. If you guys need anything while you're staying here, she is the one to ask."

"AI?" Howard echoed and Tony nodded.

"Go ahead and introduce yourself, Fri. Dazzle my folks with your charm and undying love for your creator. Say something witty," Tony called out, looking at one of her sensors in the ceiling.

“Something witty,” came the prompt response, her lilting Irish accent echoing throughout the room.

“I don’t know why I keep programming my AI’s with so much sass.”

“As a learning AI Boss, might I reiterate that I learn from and am a product of my creator?”

Tony looked put out but the rest of the group couldn’t help laughing, if somewhat bewilderingly at the disembodied voice in the ceiling.

Howard was genuinely impressed. He remembered ruminations Tony had of creating an artificial intelligence for an assistant, his first attempts being the robotic arms he created at MIT, but those were buggy and while advanced, were nowhere on the scale of this entity with the capacity for sarcasm and if to be believed, the ability to run every inch of a person’s life.

“I’ll give you guys the full run down later of the compound but like I said Friday is your go to. She is essentially omnipresent throughout the facility, just talk to her and she’ll take care of you, whatever you need. It’s uh, just us here for now,” Tony said glancing towards Steve and then back to the ground. 

Steve awkwardly shuffled around from where he stood removed from the group before remembering why he was there. He lugged the Iron Man suit around the group and called for the private elevator that led to Tony’s lab and deposited the armor inside.

“Where does that go?” Maria asked to fill the sudden overbearing silence.

“My lab.”

Howard perked up a little at that. He could only imagine what a modern day lab would look like here. He hadn’t seen a lot of this new world but the technological advances he had seen were undeniable. From AI’s to cellular phones being small enough to fit right in your pocket. The last time he had been in a lab, while only feeling like yesterday, had been that dank Hydra lab, sabotaging their plans as much as possible. He missed the feeling of being able to create what he wanted with his own hands again. 

Tony must have seen something in his eyes because he quickly tried to put an end to it, shaking his head.

“Don’t even think about it. You don’t even know how to work a modern toaster, let alone to go poking around down there.”

“I’m not a child.”

“Never said you were. Just woefully out of your depth at the moment.”

“On that note,” Steve said stepping between the pair, “I better get out of your hair before Ross finds out I’m here. Tony,” he offered his hand out to the younger man.

Tony rolled his eyes but shook it. “I’ll keep T’Challa updated on the situation.”

Steve nodded and turned to Howard and Maria. “Howard, remember what I said.”

Tony frowned in the background. 

“Mrs. Stark it was a pleasure to meet you ma’am. You guys are in good hands here.” 

The pair murmured their goodbyes, Howard’s brief hug with the man making his son sigh and avert his glare to the floor as Steve beat his hasty retreat.

“Well, I do know a few parts of the compound we can tour tonight,” Pepper said clapping her hands together with a smile. 

“Pep, we’re all tired, I’m sure everyone just wants to head to bed, long day y’know?”

“Oh, I know, but I just know they will be thrilled to see the many advances Stark Industries has made in the medical field, starting with the compound’s medbay,” she responded with a deceivingly, sweet smile. If Tony honestly thought that she was just going to let him sneak off to his lab or go to bed without seeing to his injuries then they had been apart longer than she thought.

“Pepper, I’m fine, promise. I took some Tylenol on the jet,” he protested but she was already leading him down the hall, his parents following behind them, an amused look in Maria’s eye.

“I don’t know how many times I have to explain to you that Tylenol is not an acceptable form of medical care unless you have a headache? I swear you have the self preservation instincts of a gnat.”

“Can’t imagine where you got that from,” Maria said with a sly smile as she turned to Howard.

The indignant look on both Stark men’s faces was priceless. Pepper knew then that she and Maria would be getting along just fine.

* * *

The medbay was a well known room to Pepper. There was a duplicate of it almost exactly in the tower and lord knows she and Tony had spent many a night in one of the rooms when he would come back from a mission roughed up or worse. It usually didn’t take long for Tony to sign himself out against everyone’s desires, however it had become common place in the years preceding their break. After Ultron, Tony always seemed to push himself harder and to take risks that he wouldn’t have before. She wasn’t sure how much of it was the result of his guilt or just his own self sacrificing nature.

Howard and Maria were equally marveled by the technology in the bright white room, taking in the scanners and equipment with awe. Twenty five years wasn’t a long time compared to Steve Rogers’ foray into the future, but the leaps and bounds technology had made in those subsequent years was night and day. And Stark Industries was leading it all. 

After a subsequent full body scan by Friday it was determined that neither Howard or Maria needed any kind of medical attention. As a bonus she also slyly confirmed via a text to hers and Tony’s phones that yes, this was in fact the long lost CEO and his wife and not some kind of trick or impostor. They both matched Tony’s DNA and blood on file with a 99% accuracy and showed traces of the chemicals that were used to hold them in their cryogenic sleep. So, at least that cleared the air a little bit in that regard. This was the real deal.

Always one for privacy and unable to show weakness or vulnerability in front of others, Tony refused to be examined until it was just he and Pepper. She easily suggested for the pair to take a shower and change into some more comfortable clothes. Pepper knew where there were some Avengers branded sweats and soft cotton t-shirts to wear. Maria insisted on coming with her to get them as she knew both of their sizes and Howard was too focused on examining every piece of machinery around him.

Tony shot Pepper an anxious look but Pepper just shrugged and continued on down the hall with the older woman. If he couldn’t handle five minutes alone with Howard then they had bigger problems they would have to confront. 

"Thank you, for everything you've done for us so far. And taking care of Anthony’s medical needs, however, discreetly he tries to act otherwise."

"Trust me, this is nothing," Pepper smiled, as they entered the small closet beside the training gym. And by small she meant that it was probably bigger than her first apartment had been. Each cubby inside the room had been fitted with all manner of clothing for pre and post workouts, socks, shoes etc. "I've been patching Tony up for years. I just wish he were more cooperative, though I am beginning to see stubbornness is just a typical Stark trait."

"It is unfortunately hereditary, " Maria smiled back warmly. "How long have you been together?"

The question, Maria could tell, caught Pepper off guard and she nearly dropped the clothing she had gathered. 

Maria Stark was no slouch. She wasn't the most vocal member of the Stark's, she let Howard and Tony do that for her, but in her silence she observed everything, studied everyone. Every careful touch, every lingering glance. Though it didn't take any amount of detective skills to really figure this one out. Maria had carefully viewed the interactions between her son and Pepper and the way their hugs and touches had lingered a little longer than most. 

"Oh, Tony and I have been working together since early 2000, so a little over 16 years now," Pepper replied innocently, knowing damn well that wasn't the relationship Maria was inquiring about. 

"That's a long time," Maria played along, watching as the normally unshakable woman found anything else to do to prevent her from meeting her eyes. 

"Well, with him it's like dog years, so it seems even longer," Pepper teased. 

"A sentiment I know all too well. And how long have you been together, romantically?" Pepper started to protest but Maria fixed her with a knowing gaze.

The younger woman sighed and gave a sad smile. "In May, it would have been 6 years, but we're not together anymore."

"I'm sorry," Maria offered in return. She knew how difficult it could be. There had been times she and Howard had been close to coming apart at the seams. Relationships were tricky and required constant maintenance and vigilance with each side putting in the same amount of effort. She and Howard had figured it out and were able to continue on, stronger for their difficulties. 

"It's nobody's fault," Pepper shrugged, leaning against the wall. "He's been through a lot this last year, we both have really. It was mutually decided that we needed to take a step back for awhile."

"And has it helped?"

"At first," she conceded. "But you've seen a taste of his life. This is a normal day for Tony. It makes it hard for him to be able to stop or slow down, To think about the future further than the next threat."

"It always has been difficult for him," Maria acknowledged. "Even when he was little he was always building or taking something apart, keeping busy. I'm afraid we never taught him how to stop. Or that he  _ could _ stop," she lamented. 

Gently Maria reached out a hand and offered Pepper's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "There's still hope though. Have you seen the way he looks at you? I've only been here an hour and I can without a doubt confirm he still loves you."

"Loving each other was never the problem, " she offered ruefully, and lowered her head, hair falling in front of her eyes and obscuring Maria's view. "Tony will always be my best friend and I will always have his back, but I'm not sure it's in either of our best interests to pursue a relationship again."

Maria let the subject go after that. She knew sorrow when she saw it and as much as she wanted to offer her advice or push Pepper and Anthony forward together, it was not her place. Not right now. She didn't know their circumstances or the trials that they had been through. She was at a deficit of information and not for the first time mourned the years that had been stolen away. 

Anthony had been joking before but perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea to get a run down of the things she and Howard had missed. She only hoped Friday would be so accommodating. 

They walked back to the medbay in silence, Maria carrying a set of clothing for both her and Howard. Neither man had thankfully killed the other or seemingly interacted since they had departed, Howard still enamored with some of Helen Cho’s equipment and Tony looking very near to falling asleep where he sat, chatting lowly to Friday as he scrolled through his phone.

“He’ll be okay?” Maria asked suddenly, grabbing Pepper’s upper arm after Howard walked through towards the shower room. Her mask dropped for a moment showing the first bit of apprehension since they’d met that evening.

“I’m sure he will be. Either way, I’ll take care of him, I promise.”

Reassured Maria nodded once and disappeared inside.

Pepper made sure to run very thorough examinations on her cranky patient, making Friday do every kind of scan possible to ensure nothing was overlooked. She had made Maria a promise after all. His heart was no worse than usual, he’d just need to take his dose of heart medication that he’d skipped the last few chaotic days.. Brain activity was normal 

“Whatever that means for you,” she teased.

The worst of it seemed to be contained to his left arm. Friday pulled the records of the initial diagnosis just the day before and could already tell that he had further strained the injured muscles.

“Shirt off, please. Need to gauge the swelling.”

“I know it’s been a long time Pep, but you could at least buy a guy dinner first.”

The look she shot him was thoroughly unamused and his grin withered under her continued gaze, complying as quickly as he could. 

It was slow going to remove the shirt, visibly taxing him as Tony pulled it over his head to reveal a litany of bruising, not only surrounding his damaged shoulder but in an arc across his chest, noticeably over the scarring in the center of his chest. There were other minor cuts and bruises in various shades of healing. It was difficult for Pepper to take her eyes off his chest though. If he’d still had the arc…

“What’s the damage, doc?” Tony asked, mercifully drawing her attention away and holding her eye contact.

_ I’m alive. I’m safe. _

She had always been thankful for Tony’s perceptive nature, always able to project a sense of reassurance whenever she needed it. 

“Well, the good news is that according to Friday there’s no further damage to the fracture, but taking your sling off and fighting a super soldier probably wasn’t one of your smartest ideas to date,” Pepper sighed examining the bruised and swollen limb. “I have some ice for the swelling and then we can see about getting you fitted back into a sling until Helen can look at you. How did you say this happened again?” 

Tony watched as Pepper scurried around the room, grabbing the necessary materials to finish patching him up and rubbed his eyes with his good arm wearily. “Oh, you know. That Maximoff kid dropped some cars on me.”

Pepper blanched. “Some cars? Like more than one?”

“I think it was an entire parking garage. A full level of one at least,” he said and flexed his stiff hand a couple of times trying to relieve some of the aches.

“Tony…” This was exactly the kind of thing that had made her want to take a step back from their relationship. The battles, the injuries, the stress it put on them both. It was exhausting. 

"You asked."

"And I regret it," she sighed, dabbing a cloth with alcohol and bringing it to one of the gashes on his forehead. He flinched away from her and she rolled her eyes teasingly. "Hold still you big baby." 

"It hurts," he pouted back. 

She chose not to remind him of the multiple times that she had done this before for him and instead continued her ministrations. He flinched only slightly, slowly growing used to the sting of the alcohol. She smiled and then fell into concentration with each wound she cleaned. 

She wasn't even aware of how close she had moved to his face until she felt the soft warmth of his breath upon her cheek. Tony was staring at her with dark, tired eyes, meeting her own as she stared back with equal intensity. If she moved her head just so then their lips would almost be touching…

The connecting door of the med room suite opened and the soft murmuring of Howard and Maria pervaded the air.

Pepper jumped back abruptly breaking the spell as Tony coughed and averted his gaze instantly, sliding off of the exam bed and hastily reaching for his shirt like they were two teenagers caught making out. Pepper felt frozen to the spot, conflicting emotions stirring inside her not for the first time that evening. She watched as Tony struggled with the shirt and she moved forward to help him. 

"Here, let me help you," she said, gently pushing his injured arm through the sleeve. He winced but it was less painful than if she’d let him struggle on his own.

They hadn’t been fast enough though, Pepper too at war with her own emotions to remember exactly why they had been trying to complete the exam alone.

Howard’s voice echoed in the air, a mixture of horrified and just genuinely upset, the most emotion he had shown since she had met him.

“How did you get those scars???"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I ended this chapter like I was The Joker in the Dark Knight but that was the more impactful phrase than my other iterations.
> 
> In addition to being able to follow my tumblr here at   
> [theherothechampiontheinquisitor](https://theherothechampiontheinquisitor.tumblr.com/)
> 
> I have now created a separate blog specifically for this story. Some things that will be featured are articles and media mentioned in the story such as Tony's infamous Playgirl cover from Chapter 1 that Howard was so thrilled with. There's not a ton of content out yet as most will come from the upcoming chapters but I hope you will check it out!! 
> 
> [12-16-91-stark](https://12-16-91-stark.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Til next Monday!


	9. The Long Journey Into Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone it's...not Monday. lol It is currently 1:30am on Tuesday. This week kicked my ass at work and I honestly didn't get to do any writing until today. 90% of which was done with my two year old jumping all over me so forgive any errors. I'm tired and just needed to post this for my own peace of mind haha. 
> 
> Like I said going forward is fairly dialogue heavy. We have some interesting revelations and maybe some relationship rekindling? As well as the introduction and reintroduction of a few characters. 
> 
> Let me know what you think in a comment down below. Thank you as always for the kind reviews and support. Keep giving it, I need it now more than ever cause I have to wake up in... four hours to go to work. lol Also holy crap over 300 kudos???? This has literally never happened to me before. I love each and every one of you. Thank you so very much.

A deafening silence filled the room, so quiet that it was almost as if even Friday was holding her breath in anticipation of Tony's response. 

Howard maintained his eye contact with his son even as Maria's own moved from his face to his chest where that terrible litany of scar tissue had been. 

The scars had been faded so they weren't very recent. Howard would have chalked it up to heart surgery, he'd known plenty of associates in his day that had come out with the long horizontal scar down their chest, but it hadn’t stopped there. The scars crisscrossed and stretched out further than they should, with smaller thicker scars outlining them all. Even underneath the purplish bruising from the earlier skirmish with Barnes, the wounds were clearly visible. There had to be a dozen different markings. 

Whatever had been the cause of the wounds was devastating. If it were true that Tony was a part of a superhero team with Captain America then perhaps they had come from whatever opposition that the team faced? 

Whatever it was, it was clear that Tony was in no mood to discuss it. His face had become immediately closed off at Howard’s question and the shirt hastily dragged down over him to cover up the wounds. Even Pepper looked extremely uncomfortable as she ducked her head and scurried off to the medical supply room.

The tension hung thick in the air for another moment until Tony finally sighed, knowing that he couldn’t get entirely around this one. 

"Well, Howard, I'll give you this. You're two for two with the most uncomfortable questions of the day."

“It’s a talent.”

If ever there were a Stark motto it would definitely be, when in doubt use sarcasm. 

“Listen, this,” Tony began, circling his hand over the area the scarring had been, “this is old, so you don’t need to worry about it. I’ve had some heart issues in the past, which are completely under control now. Part of the reason Stark Medical has made so many advances,” he smiled weakly and motioned around the room. 

Pepper returned to the room with an ice pack and a sling for Tony’s arm and he lapsed into silence as she began to fix his arm into the sling. Tony ducked his head down though whether in shame or embarrassment, Howard couldn’t tell. He seemed to be struggling with whether he should reveal anything else until Pepper caught the younger man’s gaze and offered a comforting smile. He weakly smiled back.

When Tony spoke again he was addressing them all though he kept his eyes focused on her blue ones. 

“I wasn’t a good man before. I could have had the scars removed but I kept them as a reminder of the man I was and will no longer be.”

His words came out like a promise. Sure and affirming. Clearly a mantra that he must have spoken to himself a million times and judging from Pepper’s smile and the comforting hand she brought to rest on his cheek, it was an affirmation that they had discussed often.

Howard was no closer to understanding the details, at the very least he could understand the sentiment. He could understand the desire to be the best version of one’s self even if he had constantly seemed to fall short of doing it himself. 

He wasn’t sure what kind of man that Tony thought that he had been before that he deserved whatever punishment those scars had wrought but Howard wanted to find out. It was clear though that Tony would not be very forthcoming. If there was one thing that Howard had always appreciated though it was a good challenge. If he hoped to reconcile with Tony, he’d have to put in the work to understand the man that his son had become and that meant the highs and the lows. 

* * *

No more was said about the scars or Tony’s past. After Pepper had his sling fashioned together, ice pack carefully tucked against the worst of the swelling, it was clear that the energy of the group was waning. 

They all left the medical wing in silence, though it was not as oppressing or filled with tension as it had been previously. Now it was comfortable. Everyone seemed to be processing their own emotions and revelations, coming to grips with this new dynamic and what it meant for their immediate future.

Tony suggested a quick pit stop in the kitchen. He couldn’t say what it must feel like to spend twenty five years in a cryogenic sleep but he was sure it was similar to his all night inventing binges where food and drink and all other bodily needs were ignored. 

The fridge and cabinets had all been recently stocked and so it was easy enough to rustle up some ham and cheese sandwiches and chips. He expected an argument or at the very least a disclaimer that this did not count as a real meal but much to his surprise, neither parent put up any kind of protest. Though they had been held by Hydra for an indeterminate amount of time. Perhaps they had been subjected to worse. 

That brought up an entirely different can of worms didn’t it? He still didn’t know the specifics as to why his family had been targeted though he could hazard a guess based on the remains of the fallen super soldiers back in Siberia. He didn’t know what all had happened to them at the base, how long they had been awake before they were discarded like trash or why they even were. 

He wanted to ask but he was tired and it was hypocritical and brought up too many memories of his own time in Afghanistan. They both seemed fine but he had seemed fine too when he returned to the United States, arc reactor carefully hidden away, along with the fears, anxiety and insomnia. Where had he learned to do all that from? His father. 

So he let it go for the moment.

After the brief 4am snack he led his family towards the residential wing of the compound, trying not to think about why all the rooms that they passed were currently sitting empty and all that he would have to do to make that right. 

They came to a stop at the vacant room beside Vision’s (try not to think about how Vision is watching over Rhodey’s broken body in Germany) and with a couple swipes he brought up the thumb pad, ready to be keyed to his parent’s biometrics.

“Just press your thumbs to the pad and Friday will code in your fingerprints. No one can gain access to your private rooms without your say so, even me.”

Howard looked at Tony doubtfully as he pressed his thumb to the scanner. “I’m sure you could if you really wanted to.”

“Probably, but that’s besides the point. Everyone needs a little space to themselves. Even superheroes. If you’d prefer you can use one of the formal guest rooms. I just figured you guys would appreciate a more permanent placement.”

“It’s wonderful,” Maria smiled, adding her thumbprint to the scanner. It lit up green and the the door unlocked. 

Howard pushed it open and partially entered, revealing a large open room, its floor to ceiling windows on the far wall looking out over the water. At the center was a large, comfortable looking queen bed and across from that was a door to a walk in closet and full bath. A desk and computer space was set up in the corner. The room was sparse on other furnishings but Tony was on top of that.

“I’ll have Friday compile a list for you guys. Clothes, furniture, electronics, toiletries. You’re equipped with the basics, so anything you want just let me or Friday know. We’ll take care of it.”

“Where will you be?” Maria asked softly, turning towards him. 

Tony leaned back out of the doorway and pointed towards a small set of curved stairs leading up to a landing and several other doors. “My suite and offices are just up the stairs. Perks of designing the place. Listen, no one else is here right now, so you guys have free reign for the most part. My lab is the only thing that’s off limits. The rest is your playground so don’t feel like you’re confined to your room. There’s a gym, media room, swimming pool, sauna. Whatever you need. You just spent all that time on ice, I'm sure it will feel nice to have a bit of a vacation.”

He smiles warmly at them and he can tell that they still have their own questions and concerns but the desire to sleep calls to them more. They both murmur their goodnights, Maria gripping him in as tight a hug as she dares without jostling his injuries and Tony still can’t get over the surrealness of having his mother wrapped in his arms. 

Howard looks at Tony like he wants to say something, though in the end he simply offers a handshake, his body twitching like he is holding himself back. He squeezes tightly and pats his son on the shoulder before disappearing inside the room, Maria following after a brief hug with Pepper, shutting the door softly behind her. 

Tony stares at the door silently for a moment before Pepper grips his hand in hers and begins leading him down the hall towards the staircase. He lets go of her hand and grips the railing and begins to ascend the stairs when he notices that Pepper isn’t following him any longer. 

“You coming?” he asks, turning towards her.

She looks between him and the hall leading towards the guest rooms indecisively. “I’m not sure that would be the best thing for us to do right now.”

Tony understands the hesitance but it’s late, he can’t remember the last time he actually slept and the emotional repercussions of fighting his team, almost losing Rhodey for good and then his parent’s sudden reappearance have completely drained him of the ability to even worry about such little implications.

“You’re supposed to be the pragmatic one,” he jokes. “Clearly you have already been in there,” Tony motions to her clothing that he knows was still in one of the bedroom drawers, “all your stuff is there and it’s just a bed. We’re adults, right?”

Pepper smiles warily. “Isn’t that my line?”

“Usually.”

She still looks conflicted and Tony sighs, dropping any other pretenses.

“Look, it’s been a rough few days and I just sleep better when you’re there. I promise to be a complete gentleman. I don’t even think I have the energy for any lewd behavior at this point.”

Pepper shakes her head but Tony can tell that she is giving in as she crosses her arms across her chest and looks up at him, the smile still not gone from her face as she slowly begins her way up the stairs.

“This doesn’t change anything.”

“Of course.”

“I mean it. We’re still on a break.”

“Absolutely.”

“We’re just sleeping.”

“That’s the plan.”

Pepper continues laying out ground rules as they reach the top and make their way into their old bedroom and Tony just continues happily placating her. Whatever Pepper may say Tony considers this a major victory because regardless of everything, Pepper is back in their bed, already hogging the blankets and despite her no contact clause, warming her cold feet against warm ones. He resists tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear as the red hair sprawls across the pillow and she begins to drift to sleep softly snoring, which she swears she has never done in her life. 

For the first time in a very long time he is able to push away the worries and traumas of the last few days and just exist here in this moment with Pepper beside him and convince himself that everything is going to be alright.

* * *

“This compound is quite amazing so far, don’t you think? Anthony has done well for himself,” Maria said as she turned down her side of the bed. The lightweight down comforter was ridiculously soft and the mattress even more comfortable as she eased into the bed. She didn’t know how she could be so tired after essentially sleeping for decades but she and Howard had been through an ordeal. 

“He has. Better than I could have imagined,” Howard replied as he joined her. He actually wasn’t tired. He had already been well attuned to long nights working on products for SI or lending Peggy help when she needed it with Shield and given everything that had occurred he thought he had spent enough time asleep. His brain wasn’t going to let him turn in so easily.

Shit. Now there was a thought. Peggy. Was she still around? She would have to be in her 90’s by now if she were. What about Shield? Tony mentioned he had spent time consulting for them but there was something more he wasn’t saying. 

“Howard, are you okay?” Maria asked as she ran a hand through his too long hair. They both needed to get a good trim when they could. She wondered if Friday would be able to arrange that.

“I’m fine,” he insisted and tried for a smile though she knew that his mind was probably running with a million different thoughts. 

Maria tutted and shook her head gently at him. Howard had always been like that. Always thinking, always problem solving. From the very first day that Maria had met him. She had always admired him for his intellect but much in the same way that she realized they had never taught their son that it was okay to stop thinking, to just be, she was sure no one had ever told Howard the same either. Or he had just never had the opportunity to stop and just process what was happening, work through his emotions instead of tackling them like one of those old car engines he used to take apart and rebuild constantly. 

“You know, it’s okay to not be alright.” Howard turned his attention from staring at the ceiling to looking into her eyes as she tried to keep them from watering, her throat clutching as the emotions she had been holding at bay all day made themselves known. “I’m not okay.”

A traitorous tear slipped down her cheek and Howard reached out as he had so many times before and wiped it away. 

“What’s on your mind?”

He already knew the answer.

“We’ve just lost so much time that we can never get back. I feel like we have missed everything.”

She cried into his shoulder as he tucked her in beside him. They had lost a lot. That was certain. The world had left them behind in the same way that time eventually left everything in the dust. Thinking tonight of possibly losing people like Peggy and shit, Jarvis even, it was easy to fall into that melancholy and regret. 

He had nothing he could say to comfort her. Only clutch her tightly and let her fall apart in the safety of their room. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep, the emotional toll of the last twelve or more hours finally dragging her into a deep sleep. 

After some time of just laying and holding her to his chest, Howard carefully extracted himself from her laying her gently against her pillow. He ran his hand down her cheek and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead before getting out of bed. 

He doubted that he would be getting any sleep tonight. There were more important ways to spend his down time. He sighed and looked to the ceiling feeling a bit foolish. 

“Friday?” he tested out quietly.

“Yes, Mr. Stark,” she responded in an equally quiet tone.

“I need some help, much as I hate to ask.”

“Of course, what can I do for you?”

“Can you tell me what happened to Tony?”

Friday hesitates. “Unfortunately, sharing Boss’ personal information is not permitted.”

“Of course.” He was almost surprised at the loyalties shown but she had already proven she was more than just a voice. He’d truly have to discuss the mechanics with Tony someday, if he’d even let him. In the meantime, he tried a different tactic. “Tony mentioned that maybe you could help me understand what has happened in the world the last few years. What is the best way for me to obtain this information?”

“The internet,” she responded, and the modern computer in the corner slowly came to life, the screen lighting up.

Howard knew of the internet of course. Running a company, though heavily weapons, required a person to be versed in all of the upcoming technology and how it could be practically applied for the present and future. The internet of 1991 must have undergone a drastic difference from the code based file sharing to whatever Friday was about to show him.

He stretched as he made his way over to the desk and chair in the corner, sitting down and relaxing into the comfortable leather. He ran a thumb across the Stark Industries logo with a small smile. Above that on the screen was an all white page. The only color coming from the lettering that was scrawled across the page spelling out ‘Google.’

“What’s this?”

“A search based engine. Type whatever information that you wish to discover and it will connect you to websites and news pages based on your search. The more concise the question, the better the results provided,” Friday dutifully responded.

“Thank you, Friday.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Stark. Might I add that not everything found is a hundred percent accurate to the true to life events.”

Howard huffed. “I imagine it’s not if the internet is as commonplace as has been implied. It’s difficult to control misinformation.”

Friday didn’t respond further as Howard began to type into the search bar, making it his mission to at least understand one of Tony’s most visceral reactions to one of his questions.

The phrase sat heavy on the page as he looked it over.

‘Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane’

Without further hesitation he clicked search and waited for the results.

* * *

_ He was falling. _

_ He didn’t realize it was happening at first.  _

_ He was too focused on the goal, losing precious seconds when the comm had shorted out. _

_ Rhodey was falling. _

_ Fast. _

_ He put everything he could into the thrusters his mind doing the calculations to how long it would take to catch up and how long until Rhodey would hit. _

_ His math was never wrong but it had to be right now. _

_ If it wasn’t it would mean Rhodey’s life. _

_ He was close, so close, he needed another boost but all the power was already allocated to the thrusters. _

_ He screamed. _

_ Rhodey fell. _

_ He would never get that sound of the War Machine armor impacting the ground out of his head. _

_ He ripped away the face plate. _

_ Rhodey was dead. _

* * *

Tony awoke with a gasp, the memory of holding his best friend’s crumpled body heavy in his mind. His chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow breaths as he reached out blindly to the end table searching for his phone overwhelmed by the need to hear his best friend’s voice, to know that even though he’d been too late he was still alive. 

He was still alive wasn’t he? Vision would have told him if anything happened right?

Pepper stirred beside him but he couldn’t slow his mind down long enough to process anything other than the sound of the phone ringing in his ear until the line finally clicked over.

“Tones?” came the soft, raspy voice on the other end.

Tony huffed out a sigh of relief, running a hand through his sleep and sweat mused hair. Rhodey was alive. He was hurt. Worse than Tony could ever be okay with, but he was here and alive and it was his fault but he could fix this. He couldn’t fix death. No all he could do then is obsess and work for years over getting the pitch and tone for the voice of his AI as close to authentic as possible.

“You okay man?”

The silence must have lapsed longer than Tony had thought and he finally was able to squeak out a greeting in between panicked breaths. “Yeah. Yeah, shit, I’m fine. Are you-- I mean you’re not, how could you be-- but you’re there…”

He felt a reassuring hand running up and down his back, underneath his t-shirt, steady, calming. Pepper’s nails just barely scratched against his skin leaving goosebumps.

“Tones, deep breaths with me, okay? Inhale slowly with me,” Rhodey spoke gently and Tony could hear him take his own breath.

Tony mimicked Rhodey’s breathing as he slowly breathed in and out over the next several minutes. The anxiety that had been a constant thrum in his veins lessened to a dull pang and his breathing gradually came down to normal levels. Normal enough that he began to feel that sense of embarrassment settle over himself as it did following any of his panic attacks. He was only thankful he hadn’t been completely dissociated as one of his more severe ones.

“You with me now?” 

“Yeah, yeah I’m here.”

“Good. You alright man? Want to tell me what’s going on?”

“I just-- I had a dream.” 

That was all Tony had to say and he knew that Rhodey would understand. Noone was more well versed in his nightmares and anxiety than his best friend and Pepper. As predicted, Rhodey made a hushed murmur of understanding. 

“I’m alright. A little bit tired of sitting in this damn bed with your sad, puppy eyed android creation mother henning my every movement, but it could be worse. A lot worse. When are you breaking me out of here? If I have to eat one more lime jello I think I might actually learn to walk again, just so I can kick someone’s ass.”

Tony’s breath catches at the mention of Rhodey’s new disability but he can’t help the small burst of laughter, the rest of his nervous energy finally draining away. 

Pepper pats his back once more and he watches her get out of the bed and pad across the room to the ensuite.

“I promise, I’ll jailbreak you out of there as soon as I can. Helen, should be flying out to the compound today.”

“You’re at the compound?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened with Rogers and Barnes, did you get them?”

“It’s a long story. Very, very long. Like War and Peace long. I promise to explain everything when we get you stateside, buddy.”

Rhodey hums disapprovingly. “Yeah, sure. What are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing.”

“That response was way too quick, now I know you’re really holding out on me.”

Tony groans but he can feel the smile tugging at his lips anyways. If Rhodey only knew half of what was going on he’d flip. Pepper returned from the bathroom, and offered him a cup of cold water, which he happily accepted. His throat felt dryer than the Sahara right now. “Thanks Pep,” he offered, covering the phone with his palm and draining the contents.

“Hey! No, no, no, Tony I heard that. What’s Pepper doing there, it’s like not even eight am. Did you guys have a little sleep over? Some reconciliation se--”

“Heeeeeeey, hold your tongue old man.”

“I see how it is. Back to second place in your life. I get it, but I’m happy for you man.”

Tony sighed. “No, no. It’s not like that,” he tried to say quietly as Pepper sent him a questioning glance from the other side of the bed as she went through her own phone messages. “She’s just here for support.”

“Mmmhmm. Given the last three months of enduring your sad longing glances I would say that this is a major step and the rest will soon follow. Just be cool, like I taught you.”

Tony laughed. “Got it. Listen Rhodey,” he begins, his voicing lapsing back into soft words, the anxiety not completely faded, “I didn’t even think to before...do you need me to call Mama or Jeannette? Anyone?”

Rhodey sighs on the other end of the line, the bright cheerful tone he had been projecting melting away as reality once more settles over the conversation. “Nah, man. I spoke to Mama earlier. She’s doing okay. I appreciate it though.”

“Anytime.” 

They lapse into an uncomfortable silence and Tony finds himself at a loss of words.

“You know it’s not your fault, right?” Rhodey’s voice cuts through the void. 

“I know,” he lies.

Rhodey sees through it as always. “It could have happened to anyone, man. One hundred and thirty-eight combat missions, Tony. That’s how many I have flown and every single one of them could have been my last, but I flew them because the fight needed to be fought. It’s the same with these Accords. I signed because it was the right thing to do. And yeah, this sucks. This is a bad beat, but it hasn’t changed my mind or the fact that it was an accident. You didn’t do this. Don’t beat yourself up like I know you’re doing right now. Just get me the hell out of here. Vision just brought me more jello.”

Tony smiles to himself and nods his head even though Rhodey can’t see him. “Okay, buddy, I’ve got your six. Let me get some coffee in me and I’ll have you on the next flight out.”

“Yeah, maybe I can hitch a flight with Happy and your Spiderkid.”

“Oh shit…”

“Tony...you did remember the Spiderkid right?”

“Talk to you later, Rhodey,” he rushed out and hung up the phone before Rhodey could even get a word in. He would understand.

Of all the damn things that he could possibly forget he couldn’t believe that he had forgotten about Happy and Peter. Happy was probably crawling the walls by now, waiting for instructions on what to do. 

“Tony are you okay?” Pepper asked gently.

“Yeah, I’m great, I just forgot the kid in Germany,” he muttered as Happy’s phone continued to ring.

Pepper wrinkled her nose in confusion. “What kid?”

Before Tony could reply, Happy answered the line.

“Tony? It’s about damn time, what happened?”

“Happy, you’ve still got the kid with you right?”

“Of course I’ve got the kid. He’s driving me nuts. I’m running out of ways to keep him entertained. I’m not good with children, you know this. Get me outta here.”

“Oh thank God,” Tony groaned and flopped back into his pillows, hissing when he jostled his arm. He rubbed his fingers against his temple to try and stave off the headache he could feel coming. Whether it was from his injuries, sleep deprivation or the aftermath of the panic attack he had no idea. Probably a combination of them all. 

May was going to kill him though if he didn’t get Peter home in time for school. Shit what day even was it? And who actually willingly took extra classes in the summer?

“Boss, are you even listening to me? The kid was watching porn. That room was in my name, now the good looking girl at the front desk is going to think I’m some kind of pervert. He bought two in a row, who even does that? Pornhub is free.”

Tony was going to have to bleach his brain after this conversation. “Hap, please enough, I don’t need to know anymore about either of your habits. Where are you now?”

“Took him sight seeing. He was crawling the walls, literally.”

“Go back to the hotel and checkout. I’ll call Darren and have him get the jet ready. I’m sorry there’s been a lot going on. I’ll meet you when you land and ride back with you to drop Pete off.”

Happy grew quieter, “Sure. You okay, boss?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

Happy laughed. “Probably cause you sound like shit.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tonight Hap. Keep the kid safe.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s as redundant as being Iron Man’s bodyguard,” he quipped.

“Goodbye, Happy,” Tony said and hung up, tossing the phone on the bed beside him. 

It wasn’t like he was going to get much sleep after that dream anyways. Just add driving to the city and back to his list. They probably wouldn’t be gettin in until nearly ten that night anyways even if Happy were at the airport right now. He could sneak a nap in at some point. At the moment though his mind began to dance with ideas for a prototype to get his best friend back on his feet, literally. 

“Have you adopted a kid since I last saw you?” Pepper questioned, as she laid back down beside him.

“Oh no, it was one of those old paternity suits we used to get in the early 00’s, remember? Like daily. One bore fruit,” he deadpanned and looked her in the eye.

Pepper’s normally bright and cheerful face went completely white and he thought she might be sick right there. He couldn’t help the laugh that escaped and the moment that she realized he was teasing growled and punched his uninjured shoulder. 

“You’re a jerk,” she said and sat up, he followed her lead.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. The look on your face was priceless, I needed that laugh.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Very funny. So, who is he really then?”

“Oh, um. You know. He’s like a...I’m his mentor of sorts...for Stark Industries, the internship, you know that thing we do with kids?”

Based on the deadfaced response he was getting, no, Pepper didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Well, you know, he was too young for the September Foundation grant, but he’s a brilliant kid. Very interested in arachnids, he made this web type formula, the tensile strength is off the charts, we gotta scoop him up.”

“So, you’re mentoring him?”

“Yep.”

“In Germany?”

“Uhhh. Yeah, the whole Accords thing kinda threw a wrench in my plans to show him the German SI facility. It was a little field trip of sorts, kid is a giant nerd like I said.”

Pepper nodded along too his rambling, her eyebrows raised clearly not believing what he was saying. It’s not that he didn’t want to tell Pepper the truth about Peter but the kid wanted to be anonymous. He couldn’t out him, no matter how harmless it may seem. He was sure Pepper would be seeing a lot more of him anyways if she ended up sticking around. He was serious about the mentoring part, and not just of the superhero variety. Peter reminded him a bit of himself at that age, just less jaded. His mind could change the world someday and he wanted to nurture that spark and drive as much as he wanted to make sure he’d be protected as Spiderman.

“I’m sorry about that, by the way,” Pepper spoke, her eyes downcast. 

Tony scrunched his face up in confusion. “Huh?”

“MIT. The September Foundation. I’m sorry I canceled so last minute. It wasn’t fair to you after all the effort you put into honoring all of your commitments with SI and outside of it.”

Oh.  _ That. _

After everything that had happened over the last few days that had been a distant memory, and even then the crushing blow of her absence was overshadowed by his confrontation directly after with Charlie Spencer’s mother and everything that followed. 

“Oh. It’s fine, Pep, don’t worry about it.”

“No, it’s not fine. I left you hanging and it was rude. I just...didn’t feel like pretending, you know? With this break Ii thought it’d bring everything into focus but its just made everything so weird between us, and we’ve never been weird like this in all the years that we’ve known each other. Getting your voicemail yesterday...all I could think of was when the aliens attacked and you called me and I missed it and I just worried that Ii’d done it again after everything that was being said about the Avengers and Rhodey was hurt.”

Tony listened intently to her rambling and tried reading between the lines to discern what she was really talking about but she was difficult to read these days. 

“So, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I want our friendship back. I don’t want to feign this awkward politeness and social niceties anymore. Last night...well, a few hours ago...was nice. It felt like before. Like normal. Do you understand?”

He reached across the bed and placed his hand over her knee, gently squeezing. “I think I do. And I agree. I’m better with you than alone, whether that’s as something more or as my best friend, it doesn’t matter.”

“Maybe we can start actually working on the things that kept us apart and maybe...maybe we can try again in the future.” Her voice was marred with hesitation despite the earnestness of the statement. 

She was scared. And honestly so was he. He fucked things up a lot despite his best efforts not to. If he got the chance to be with Pepper again there was nothing he wouldn’t do to nurture that relationship into something good and enduring. He didn’t ever want to lose that connection again.

“I think that is agreeable.”

She smiled brightly and leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to his cheek. Tony reveled in the contact.

“Lay with me for a little longer? I’m sure that panic attack has you drained.”

It did but Tony was used to working under much worse conditions. He had a million and one things to do, but he really meant what he said and this was the first step he could take to prove that. Work could wait a little longer. Having Pepper nestled into his uninjured side running circles across his chest was more important than anything else in the world.

* * *

The internet was overwhelming in its current state.

Pictures, videos, articles, conspiracy theories, informational pages. They pulled up with every search and every click. 

He knew that Tony was 5’10 (maybe wearing a certain pair of shoes, Howard was 5’10 and he was just slightly taller than his son) 165lbs. He used to live in Malibu, California following his and Maria’s deaths. 

There were rumors of drug and alcohol abuse during this time as the frequency with which he appeared at clubs and bars was amped up with many unflattering photos cropping up and an arrest for drunken disorderly.

Then Tony took over the reigns of SI from Obadiah. There were plenty of doubts of his capabilities to lead but after a slight dip in stocks Tony had produced a new type of body armor for the military, able to withstand bullets and and debris from bombs alike and the military ate it up. Stark Industries began to flourish, military contracts constantly being upped, new weapons and lines of defense being cranked out at a steady pace, and quality at that given the amount of time between product releases, he wasn’t sure how Tony would have had time for anything else, but he did.

He built an architectural wonder of a home on a cliff side just to prove that he could. Stark Industries began making small advances into the medical and agriculture divisions. The technology division produced phones and computers, though not as widely as they were currently known for. Weapons production was still the big money maker.

The drinking and partying and women seemed to keep up a constant stream if the old tabloid headlines were anything to go by.

And then 2008 happened.

_**TONY STARK MISSING IN AFGHANISTAN FOLLOWING CONVOY ATTACK** _

_**STARK INDUSTRIES MOURNS LOSS OF CEO** _

_**UNITED STATES ARMY TO CALL OFF SEARCH FOR TONY STARK** _

_**OBADIAH STANE TO TAKE THE REIGNS OF STARK INDUSTRIES** _

And then…

_**TONY STARK IS ALIVE! FOUND WANDERING DESERT** _

_**STARK RAVING MAD? STARK INDUSTRIES TO CEASE WEAPON PRODUCTION IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING PRESS CONFERENCE** _

_**ARC REACTOR OVERLOAD AT STARK INDUSTRIES - NO ONE INJURED** _

_**OBADIAH STANE KILLED WITH THREE OTHERS IN SMALL AIRCRAFT CARRIER FLIGHT IN THE TROPICS** _

_**TONY STARK - ”I AM IRON MAN” - A SUPERHERO IS BORN** _

It was horrifying. 

His son had been kidnapped by terrorists, not unlike Hydra. The articles were sparse on any other kind of details but Howard’s imagination could fill in the rest. Yet from the ashes he rose to be a hero. 

The only things that really didn’t make sense were the arc reactor overload and Obadiah’s death.

It would take a hell of a lot to overpower the arc unless it was done intentionally. There were grainy videos of Iron Man and another man in a similar, larger suit fighting on the freeway not too far from the Malibu division and directly after Tony announces he is Iron Man and Obadiah mysteriously dies in a plane crash? It reeked of a cover up.

Howard had known Obadiah for a long time and if there was one thing he hated, it was small planes. It wasn’t his style. He preferred the jet over all other travel. It didn’t make sense for him to be where he was. 

He delved further into the internet following links and bread crumbs of ideas. 

Some people theorized it had been Obadiah in the other metal suit. Or that it was Obadiah’s fault that Tony had been kidnapped by terrorists. It had been following a weapons demonstration of a devastating new design, the Jericho, a demonstration that typically could have been done on a secure site in the US, so why did they have Tony, the CEO and arguably most important person in the company flown out to an active war zone?

There were even theories convinced that Obadiah had been behind the mysterious car accident that claimed his and Maria’s lives and he’d been blindsided when the company was left to Tony effective immediately, so he bided his time. 

A chill went through Howard’s body as what he said rang true with what he knew of the events in question and Tony’s own reaction. Tony had always loved Obie before. The man took him to baseball games and movies when he was younger and mentored him after he graduated MIT. 

Obadiah was ambitious but he couldn’t have done that.

Could he?

“Shit…” he whispered into the morning light streaming into the room. He hung his head between his hands feeling anger and regret welling inside of him, tears forming but never falling from his eyes. He remembered Maria's words from earlier, "It's okay to not be alright." Well, he wasn't alright. Not by a long shot.

“This is all my fault.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost IronDad time!!!! And hello again Rhodey. Welcome back to the fold. Sad panda Howard is already breaking my heart. Leave him some love. <3 Til next Monday!


	10. The Talk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is still Monday!!! I'm sorry for these later updates guys. Everything I have been writing is all new stuff and I haven't been getting much time aside from my off days (Mondays!) to write. Even then I have three kids that are as demanding a you can imagine. Haha. 
> 
> So, here we go. The first of the big talks and it honestly goes about as well as can be expected for these emotionally constipated boys. I apologize if it feels filler-ish. It's difficult and awkward finding ways to retell what the audience already knows and have it still seem just as fresh and horrifying as the actual events were. I busted my ass on this though so I really, really hope that you enjoy it. 
> 
> We're almost at 400 kudos and that is so insane guys. Please keep leaving me your thoughts and comments and flailing as always down below. I go back and reread everything you guys say so often, it's such an amazing motivator, you can't even imagine. <3
> 
> Huge shout out to Takada Saiko for listening to me scream and flail every step of the way getting this chapter to paper. I couldn't do it without you. <3

Pepper had only requested that Tony lay in bed with her for a little longer, which usually meant that he would give her maybe an hour and she would be content.

What he wasn't counting on was his own bone weary exhaustion coming back full force. 

Somewhere between rambling about prosthesis specs and Pepper running her hand gently through his hair like he was some kind of house cat, Tony fell back asleep. And by fell back asleep he meant he crashed for the rest of the day, deeply enough that he didn't even remember dreaming or Pepper leaving the bed. He was pretty sure that he hadn't even moved from his position where he laid on his back, though Pepper had pulled the blanket over top of him. 

He suspected that this might have been her plan all along, luring him in with her warm body beside his and making sure he didn't rush off to begin working or avoiding his feelings regarding the compound's latest residents. 

All the same, by the time he was woken up, Pepper's face leaning over him with a gentle smile, the sun was getting low and he knew he'd slept a good twelve hours, or close to it. Unprecedented for Tony Stark, king of nightmares and insomnia. 

"Shit, I have to get Happy and the kid," he spoke in a groggy mumble.

He sat up faster than he should have and groaned when his stiff and achy body protested. 

"Slow down, you haven't missed anything. I already spoke to Happy. They won't be landing for a couple hours still. I figured you'd need enough time to shower and grab a bite to eat."

Tony's brain still felt foggy as he listened to Pepper speak. A shower would be nice. He was too exhausted earlier to bother aside from washing his face and a couple courtesy sprays from his emergency can of Axe. 

"What about Rhodey? I was supposed to get him transferred…”

“I already spoke to the doctor in Berlin. They don’t think it’s best for him to travel so fresh from his surgery, they want him to rest for a few more days and then they’ll approve the transfer home. I’ve already briefed Helen and had Berlin send copies of his medical records for her to start looking over and see if anything has been missed. She said she’d be by to check you out tomorrow, and to just let you sleep today.”

“My parents?”

"I haven't seen Howard today, I think your Mom said he never went to bed either, so if he's anything like you he probably crashed. Your mom was a little restless though and insisted on making you a real meal. Said you're too skinny. I'm inclined to agree," she said and poked at one of his ribs for emphasis.

"Yeah, yeah, ganging up on me already. I see how it is," he mumbled and brought his legs over the side of the mattress and stood up. “Thank you, for taking care of me...things  _ for _ me, that is. I forget how scarily efficient you are.”

"Almost like I was your PA for ten years, right?” she said with a wink and he snorted and headed for the shower, Pepper cautiously following behind him. “You need some help?" Pepper asked, motioning to his arm.

Tony looked to the offending limb and tested it out. He had some range of motion but there was no way he was going to be able to lift it high enough to remove his shirt. Well, he could. It would just probably suck. And why bother when Pepper was standing here willing to help? He nodded his head and allowed her to step forward into the bathroom and gently help him get the shirt off. 

"I don't know how you expect to drive like this," she said and tossed the shirt into a hamper. 

"Friday can take the wheel for me, can't ya Fri?"

"Given your driving record Boss it's probably the safest alternative even if you were healthy."

Pepper snorted while Tony did his best to look offended.

"Oh, I don't even want to hear it from you, Leadfoot Potts."

"And how many speeding tickets have you acquired so far this year?"

Tony opened his mouth to respond but Friday was faster.

"Four if you include the one you talked the officer out of with an autograph."

Pepper looked at him triumphantly. "Are you able to do the rest yourself," she asked gesturing to his sweatpants before adding with a coy smile, "Or will that be all Mr. Stark?"

"Depends, are you offering?"

"Not today."

"Then that will be all Ms. Potts." 

Pepper lingered in the door frame looking him over before backing out of the room and slipping back to wherever she had been before. 

This was nice. This was almost exactly how it had been before with him being charming and flirtatious and Pepper deflecting and getting shit done like she always had. Though…she hadn’t turned him down entirely. She flirted back.

He could definitely get used to this. 

* * *

Howard wanted a drink more than he had ever wanted a drink in his entire life. Given the amount of bullshit that he had managed to live through in his time that was really saying something. He knew that Tony had to have some somewhere. He said that the Compound was equipped with everything you could want and he wanted a drink. The only problem being that meant he would have to leave this room which meant he would end up running into someone, Maria or Pepper or even Tony and he didn’t think he was ready to have a conversation with anyone just yet.

Images swirled in his mind, everything that he had sat and digested these last few hours. Images of race cars being cut in half, Tony attacked on a race circuit by the son of a man that had been Howard’s enemy, that he’d had deported. Another way that his actions had hurt his son. 

There were plenty of other horrific images and stories he spent hours wading through. Aliens in New York and Tony disappearing into a wormhole before falling lifelessly back to the Earth. Tony's architectural marvel of a mansion crashing into the ocean with him inside. An entire city flying in the air. Finally, grainy black and white videos of the supposed Avengers squaring off against each other, his friend leading the attack against his son. And that had just been a couple of days ago.

This was only the surface level information. Most everything that he had been able to find always included very little detail. 

He never found any definitive or important information that could be verified on what happened in Afghanistan or with Obie. Sometimes 

Tony would front a press conference after other incidents appearing more tired with each one as he discussed what happened and how the Stark Relief Foundation (created after the first alien incident, he’d discovered) would be fronting the bill and righting any wrongs that were left over. 

Overall he was impressed with not only the sheer volume of bullshit that Tony had gone through in a relatively short amount of time and his ability to own up and fix what he could. It wasn’t something he noticed any of the rest of the “team” doing and it felt unfair but Tony carried the burden regardless.

It wasn’t all bad. 

There were always pictures and stories of Tony and Pepper Potts coming up. Fluff articles about whether they’d ever get married or have a family, candids of them at the beach or getting coffee or even supporting each other around the press. Pepper seemed like an amazing woman and Tony was right, Stark Industries had flourished under her control. She seemed to be the only bright spot in his life over the years. He wondered what had went wrong. 

Overall though, the information overload left Howard feeling angry and overwhelmed. If he never used the internet again it would probably be too soon. 

A part of him, the small part that didn’t want to drink away everything that he had just found out wanted to go to his son and just give him a hug. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had done such a simple gesture of affection. Tony had to have been young, maybe before he sent him off to boarding school. Why had he ever stopped? What excuse was his mind going to make this time? That he wanted to protect him? Not even from enemies or the press, but to protect him from turning out like his father, spare him some pain when he realized that Howard was never cut out to be a father? He got hurt anyways. He realized it anyways. Howard just made it more painful. 

“Can I offer some advice?”

Howard startled from where he sat still in front of the monitor, an image of Iron Man falling from the wormhole till emblazoned on the screen. He hadn’t realized that Maria had left the door open when she exited. 

Pepper Potts stood tall in the doorway, managing to exude an air of confidence and authority that was always present in her business portraits, though she now wore flats and jeans. 

“Don’t beat yourself up over what you weren’t here for. There was nothing that you could have done that would have made Tony do any differently. Trust me, I know. I’ve tried on many occasions to get him to stop or slow down.” She laughs ruefully as if caught up in the memory of one of those times. 

“Maybe I couldn’t change this,” he gestured quietly to the screen, “but I could have been a deterrent against other people, other threats.”

Pepper seemed confused by what he meant. 

“Obadiah,” he offered, and watched her face to see if he had the right pieces in place.

Pepper nodded. “Try talking to Tony again.”

“Can I ask you? You know about what happened right?”

“It’s not my story to tell,” she said sympathetically. 

“He doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“It’s complicated for a lot of reasons, and not just for the ones you may think. In a way, none of this,” she gestured around the compound, “would have happened without Obadiah. It was a wake up call of sorts. It still doesn’t make any of this your fault. I know you Stark men seem to enjoy your guilt complexes but there are things that get set in motion that you have no control over. You can only do your best to move forward and make it right.”

Howard felt a little bit better. Not a lot, Pepper was right, the guilt clung to him no matter how much he wished he could shake it. There was only one person though that could really give him the answers that he wanted, that could lessen the hold or bury him with it. He’d have to talk to Tony and not let him brush him off again. 

“Where did Tony find you again,” he asked, a playful smirk tugging at his mouth. 

She smiled back. “Accounting.”

* * *

It didn’t take long for Tony to shower and get dressed. His shirt was challenging as ever but he was able to get it on without help from anyone, as much as he enjoyed Pepper’s help he was determined not to act like a total invalid, he could deal with a little pain. He always had. 

He glanced at himself in the mirror and cringed at the discolored bruising around his eye from his first bout with Barnes and the subsequent cuts and marks from the last fight. It wasn’t like Peter hadn’t seen his injuries when he first recruited him but he hated showing any kind of vulnerability if he didn’t have to. Instead he opened the top drawer of his dresser and went over the rows of designer sunglasses until he found a shade that matched the rest of his outfit and slid them on, his armor against the outside world completed. 

“Better,” he mumbled and felt a little more like “Tony Stark” than he had in weeks. 

His armor in place he slipped out of his room and down the stairs. He briefly spared a glance toward his parents room and continued on towards the kitchen when the door was open and no one was inside. Perhaps his father had joined the land of the living as well.

“Tony, can I talk to you for a minute?” Howard asked, coming out of literally nowhere.

Tony couldn’t help but startle a bit. Scratch that previous though, clearly Howard was just waiting to ambush him. “Jeez, heart condition, Howard. Have you seriously just been lurking around here like a vampire waiting for me?”

“Don’t vampires generally avoid the sunlight?” he responded, indicating the setting sun spilling in from all around them. 

“Not the point. Can it wait? I’m kinda in a rush.”

Tony was about 99% sure that he was smelling his mother’s lasagna, a dish that he hadn’t had in decades, could only dream about, no amount of overpaid chef’s could replicate it. For the first time in a long time he actually felt hungry, like he wanted to eat for enjoyment and not just to keep his body going. 

“I just need you to answer a few simple questions for me...about Obadiah.”

And just like that his appetite went flying out the window. Is this how Howard had spent his day? He had kind of been joking when he suggested Howard go digging through the years but clearly the man had taken it to heart. Tony shouldn’t have been surprised and couldn’t even really blame him. It didn’t make the discussion any less difficult or him any more willing to discuss it.

“There was nothing simple about Obadiah.”

“Did he do it?” Howard asked earnestly.

He already had a good idea of what Howard was asking, but there was no telling what he had actually stumbled across. “Do what Howard?”

“Try to kill you?”

Tony sighed and removed his glasses slowly. He gave his father the courtesy of looking him in the eye, dropping his guard for just a moment. Tony was curious as to whether he would be given the same courtesy of his father’s real reaction when he spoke.

“Which time?”

To his credit, Howard looked genuinely horrified and wasn’t that something? He didn’t think that he had ever seen that kind of a reaction before. Anger, indifference, annoyance? Patented Howard Stark. Shock, concern, horror? Not so much. It actually made him feel a little bad that he had to drop that little nugget of truth but Howard had pushed, had wanted to know. Knowing wasn’t any easier than ignorance. 

“Tony…” 

The older man looked like he wanted to say something but faltered in the same breath. Maybe an apology? To express regret? Tony would never know because he broke his eye contact and clamped down on the outward display of emotions, bottling them back inside. Is this what Pepper saw when he used to shut her down? 

“Look, honestly I don’t have the time to talk about it right now, I have to get my kid. We’ll talk soon though, yeah?” Tony said and pat Howard on his shoulder once, breaking his trance.

Without another word he left his father behind and instead of heading towards what he could imagine was a delicious meal, his stomach now churned and he detoured to the atrium and out the tall glass doors to where his Audi sat waiting.

He was sure that Pepper would disapprove and his mother would worry but he couldn't think of that right now. All he could think of was that he needed to get the hell out of there. He’d have to answer his father’s questions eventually, sooner probably rather than later if his impatience was any indication. He just needed time to think, to plan. To decide what to say and how to say it. It wasn't something he could be ambushed over. That was a sure fire way to throw him into another panic attack. 

Tony made one last glance at the compound to see if anyone had followed him out but it didn't look like they had, thankfully. 

“Okay, Friday, let's get out of here."

* * *

If there was anything that could ever take his mind off of Howard's questioning, it was definitely the gift that was Peter Parker. It had only been three days since he'd stolen the boy away for his "Stark Internship" but in that time he had managed to almost forget how energetic the kid could be.

From the time the plane landed and Happy brought his weary body down the stairs, Peter had turned all of his spastic energy towards Tony, remarking over the Audi and if Tony had ever taken it to top speed, (of course he had, and then some once he added some minor tweaks to the engine), then bouncing around to how cute the kittens on Tony’s shirt were (he honestly hadn’t even realized but they were pretty cute weren’t they?)

The kid was easy to talk to and his joy was contagious. Tony could feel his spirits instantly lift as he listened to the non-stop ramblings. Happy seemed to have had his fill days ago and was relieved to take the wheel and tune them both out. He’d have to give Happy another raise, not that he really needed one or had ever asked for one. It was just one of the only ways that Tony knew how to show that extra bit of appreciation. Happy, had come a long way from just being a bodyguard. Tony wasn’t sure what had inspired that sort of loyalty but he wanted to make sure he never lost it.

Tony’s appetite came back and he could already hear Peter’s own stomach rumbling despite eating everything on the plane that wasn’t nailed down, according to Happy. Peter looked sheepish but admitted since the spider bite his metabolism had been off the charts, so Tony made Happy stop off and buy them the greasiest fast food cheeseburgers money could buy.

It was after his second burger was finished and Peter was rambling on about his friend Ted and how they built the Millennium Falcon out of Legos in one marathon of a night that Tony decided it was time to finally have a serious talk with the kid. 

“Pete, I need to talk to you about something,” he cut him off and it took a minute for Tony’s words to sink in and the kid to actually stop.

“Talk? We are talking right, Mr. Stark?”

“You’re talking, my ears are being assaulted.”

“I told you,” Happy grumbled into his burger.

Peter’s face dropped a little. “Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Stark, sometimes I get nervous and I just start talking and I don’t shut up. I’m working on it.”

“No, no. Kid. It’s not a problem. Trust me. You are probably the only person besides Pepper who could match me in the hyperverbal department. That’s not my point though. I wanted to talk to you about the future. About the “internship,” he said complete with the air quotes. 

“Oh. Um. Okay, sir. You want the suit back right?”

“Are you going to stop being Spiderman?”

Peter immediately grew defensive. “No.”

“I didn’t think so. No, you can have the suit. I made it for you, kid. I don’t think I could pull the look off.”

“You’re serious?” Peter asked, his voice doing that weird squeak that only puberty could do to a voice. 

Tony honestly, had never been more sure in his decision to give the kid his tech than that very moment. The kid was young but he had a good head on his shoulders, wanted to honestly help others and make a difference for no other reason than he had the ability to and it was only right. With a little more mentoring and some direction maybe Tony could make a real difference with this kid. 

Tony smiled. “As a heart attack kid. That’s not all that I wanted to talk to you about though.”

“Are you making me an Avenger?!”

“No.”

Peter groaned but didn’t look too disappointed, still riding the high of keeping his suit. “Then what else is there?”

“I want to continue your internship except make it a little more official. We can still do the whole superhero mentor thing but you’re still a kid, and there’s a big world out there for you. I wanna get you some lab time. Have you come out to the compound every now and then, help me out with some projects. I’m actually starting a new line of prosthetics and could use an extra mind. Since Banner has been MIA for awhile I need a new science bro to watch my back. God, knows DUM-E tries but he has that name for a reason, kid.”

Peter seemed more stunned than before. “You want me...Peter Parker...to help you...Tony Stark…”

“Yep,” he responded.

“You want me to help you…”

“Yes, is there an echo in here?”

“I’m...I’m just taking it in. This is...this is amazing. This is great, Mr. Stark. When I came home and you were sitting on my couch I never expected this, any of this. This is like the second coolest thing that has ever happened to me,” Peter spoke in total shock and awe.

Tony quirked an eyebrow. “Only the second coolest, huh?”

“Well, the first was my powers…”

“I suppose that’s fair. Okay, so done deal then right? We’ll just clear everything with Aunt Hottie and you’ll have access to the best lab in the world. And maybe we can see about giving you some upgrades. I always have ideas to spare.”

“Please don’t call her that,” Peter groaned, sliding down in his seat.

“I’m just laying down the facts, kid, but you’re right. Though between me and you, I think Happy is the one you need to watch out for with her. She was definitely checking him out when we picked you up for the airport.”

Happy choked on his burger in the front seat and Tony could only laugh as Peter looked on with horror.

“This is awful, why would you do this to me?” Peter deadpanned.

And so the evening continued. 

They made their way to Queens after a couple more burgers and Peter continually changed the topic away from all mentions of his unusually attractive Aunt and who she was or wasn’t checking out. Happy was just as grateful to change the subject, a tinge of pink burning his ears and cheeks as he yelled at the other drivers on the road. 

Tony went along with it, just as he did with Peter’s video diary and cementing their cover story. Tony wondered if this was how Rhodey had felt with him when they were at MIT together, just smiling and nodding along with whatever gibberish came out of his mouth while also trying to keep him steady and on the right course. 

He almost hugged the kid goodbye but something stopped him, so he played it off as a joke instead.

Tony wondered if it had anything to do with the man waiting back at the compound for him as the reality began to set back in.

* * *

Howard Stark was not a perfect man. He grew up fast dealing with a father who only showed how he felt through the whip of his belt. He had vowed never to grow up and become that man and he hadn’t for the most part, but life had hardened him in other ways. Something had happened to him when his best friend had gone into the ice in ‘45 though and Howard had never recovered completely. He worked too hard and could drink too much. He had never learned how to express his feelings the way that he should. Maria had tried and she did help a little. He really did love her and was easily able to drop his bad habits. She made him a father, gave him a family that he knew that he would never deserve. 

No, he was far from perfect, but damn it he was trying. And failing. Miserably. He had never been quite sure how to handle his failures and that was why he found himself going through his son’s bar at two in the morning. 

Tony kept giving him the runaround. He couldn’t really blame him but it was damn frustrating. On one hand he was honestly trying to make amends. He had lost decades of time with his son and the times that he had been around he had always kept him at arm's length for fear that he would turn out just like his father. That for the most part hadn’t happened, but he had inherited his stubborn and avoidant nature. Wore the same coat of armor Howard had perfected since long before Tony was even a glimmer in his mother’s eye.

It was late when Tony got back from his errand, picking up  _ a _ kid not _ his _ kid. That had caused a bit of a flurry between Howard and Maria until Pepper explained it was a kid Tony was mentoring, over dinner. He was quiet though when he arrived, a tall built man beside him eyeing Howard with a tired suspicion. Brief introductions were made but the suspicion remained on Happy’s face even as he and Tony disappeared in the labyrinth of the compound, all hopes of discussion flying out the window. That had been three hours ago

Howard ran his hands across the many bottles and labels in the kid’s collection at the bar, many he’d heard of and some that he hadn’t. He settled on Johnnie Walker blue label and poured his whiskey neat into the awaiting tumbler. He threw the first glass back with a practiced ease, the drink going down smoothly, warming his mouth without any of the burn of lower quality drinks. He refilled the glass and hesitated only briefly before snatching the entire bottle and moving to the other side of the bar to sit.

“A little late for a drink, don’t you think?”

Howard closed his eyes and bit back a groan. Of course the one time he wasn’t actively seeking his son out, he should appear in the doorway armed with righteous indignation.

“Ever heard of a night cap, kid?” he offered.

Tony didn’t respond but he moved farther into the room, his shoes echoing against the cold floors. 

“A wise man once told me that it was always best to drink alone. There were no people to judge you that way,” Tony said coming up right beside him and sliding into the chair on his right. He stared unnervingly as Howard refilled the tumbler, waiting as he now took a long sip, the edge beginning to fall off. 

“Sounds to me like that guy wasn’t very wise at all. He was probably just too scared of anyone finding out that he was human too.”

Tony smirked at that and leaned across the bar, grabbing the first glass his fingers brushed up against. He placed it before Howard and tapped the bar. 

“I’m not your bartender son.”

“Sure you are. You certainly seem comfortable serving yourself whatever I have. Come on, this is terrible service.”

Howard rolled his eyes but poured him a glass anyhow. 

“You have fine taste, I’ll give you that,” Howard said and clinked glasses with him, taking another smooth sip and relishing the ease with which it passed.

“I learned from you.” Tony ducked his head and ran a finger over the rim of his glass.

“Of all the things you decide to take after me for, you chose my shitty one liners and my taste in expensive alcohol?”

Tony laughed. “Who else did you think was making their way through your vintages every summer?”

“Those vintages were behind lock and key for a reason.”

“C’mon Howard, I hacked the Pentagon on a dare. You think a simple cabinet lock was beyond my talents?”

“Did you think I didn’t know?”

Tony snorted. “I think you didn’t care.”

Howard tucked his head down and stared at his glass of amber liquid like it was suddenly the most interesting thing in the world. The problem wasn’t that he hadn’t cared, he just hadn’t cared  _ enough _ . There was always something more important that he needed to focus on and his son stealing a couple drinks from the liquor cabinet wasn’t even close to being a priority. He had meant to bring it up eventually to him, maybe give a lecture on the dangers of drinking and how alcoholism runs in the family, making his son very susceptible to the addiction.

But then the summer would end. Tony would go back to MIT and Howard would go back to Shield or SI without so much as a goodbye. Howard could forget.

“So, who are you hiding from?”

Howard startled from his thoughts and cocked his head back to look at his son as he sipped at his glass. It took a moment for his words to sink in and Howard blinked and shook his head to clear the thoughts. 

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Nothing about you has ever been obvious. I might have had an easier time growing up if it had been.”   
On a normal day the barb would have slid right off his back Howard might have laughed and traded a quip of his own. Today, a day that he was already commiserating his own failings as a father, the jab from his son struck deep. 

"I'm hiding from you, but for some reason, you've stopped hiding from me too."

"Mom," Tony offered by way of explanation. "And Pepper. They’re both worried about you. You shouldn't spend so much time on the internet y'know? It'll rot your brain." He took his first drink from the glass.

"I should have known. They're becoming quite the formidable duo. Can't say I blame you for handing Stark Industries over to your girl. She has proved more than capable."

"She's not my-- we're not together," he began with a shake of the head, having already been through this conversation more times than he'd liked in the last few days.

"Anymore?" 

"Anymore." The word came out in a longing whisper and Tony threw back the contents of the glass without any further hesitation and then promptly refilled it, any plans to pace himself slowly withering away.

Howard sympathized. He had known of course that the pair were no longer together, Maria had offered up the details freely, but she wasn't the only one who could see that the pair weren't completely over each other. It was painfully obvious whenever they were in the same room together.

"Why is that?" He found himself asking. He was sure Tony wouldn't appreciate the prying but maybe there was something he could do to help. 

Tony didn't answer for a long time. Howard could see the internal battle playing across his face as to whether or not to divulge any intimate details. He took a long pull of the whiskey and propped an arm up on the bar, leaning his head into his hand.

"This lifestyle," Tony began carefully, "isn't the easiest to live through. I've made a lot of mistakes, public and otherwise and it was just too much of a strain. She didn't deserve that. A break seemed the best way to go."

"But breaks come to an end eventually don't they?"

"That's the idea."

"So, what's the problem then?"

"How did this turn into a conversation about Pepper and I? You don't  _ know _ us. It's not that simple."

"I don't know the exact situation but I know people. I've made it work with your mother long enough."

"Mom's a saint," Tony muttered into his glass as he took another drink.

"I won't deny that."

"Why do you care anyway? You were never interested in any girls I brought home before."

"Yeah, well…" Howard made a face as he refilled his glass, recalling the occasional leggy blondes and perky brunettes that generally beat a hasty retreat in the early hours of the morning. He could count on one hand the amount that he was ever actually formally introduced to, and even then usually only in passing or to start a fight. “You were never serious about a girl before.”

“I was mostly trying to piss you off."

"You often succeeded." 

"I didn't know how else to get your attention. Creating things worked for awhile...and then you checked out again so I came up with other methods. Pissing you off was a sure fire way to always be noticed. "

"I never meant to make it so difficult."

"Could have fooled me."

"I was trying to protect you the only way I knew how."

“Yeah, well, how’d that work out?”

“I don’t know. You won’t give me any straight answers.”

Tony laughed and took another drink but some of the tension seemed to melt away with it. At the very least Howard felt like the anger was being redirected instead.

Tony spoke quietly next, barely above a whisper. “What do you know about Afghanistan?”

Howard gaped for a moment before quickly recovering. “Just the highlights. Terrorists attacked your convoy and held you captive for three months.”

“Highlights are right,” he breathed deeply and stared off into the distance. “I told you I didn’t used to be a good man. Sure I could make more sophisticated weapons, charm the pants off of the military brass and the press alike, but I was selfish, irresponsible. I drank too much, slept with any woman in my path. In the early days I even dabbled in drugs. I can’t say I could completely blame Obadiah for putting that hit out on me.”

Howard felt his breath hitch on Tony’s words. The dread he had felt reading rumors and conspiracies online weighing so much heavier out in the open coming from his son’s own mouth. It was true. Obadiah, his friend and business partner for decades had become a monster.

“I really thought that was it. I tried to fight back but there was a lot of fire and the only gun I could find was jammed, so I hid behind a damn rock like that would keep me safe while i called someone, anyone for help. That was when my eyes were open. There aren’t a lot of things scarier than coming face to face with a bomb with your own name on it, knowing that it had been built to penetrate the protective vest you have on. Obadiah didn’t count on me surviving.”

Tony threw back the rest of his drink and Howard refilled both of their glasses without a word. 

“You can see why it’s complicated to discuss?” Tony asked with a melancholy grin.

“So, the scars?” Howard motioned to his chest. 

Tony nodded. “Shrapnel mostly. I should have died.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Tony paused thoughtfully and ran a hand across his face, “There was another prisoner. Yinsen. He saved my life. The shrapnel couldn’t all be removed, so he rigged an electromagnet and embedded it into my chest. Used a car battery to power it and keep the shrapnel from killing me.”

Howard didn’t think he heard Tony right. “Embedded?”

Tony tapped the area on his chest that the scarring had been the greatest. “A real bitch to be awake for though. Would not recommend it to anyone. Yinsen’s work saved me but I was able to improve it. I made a miniaturized arc reactor and that’s what kept me alive for the next five years or so.”

”An arc reactor? Like was in your suit?”

“One in the same.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, shit.” 

This was all shaping out to be so much worse than what Howard could ever have imagined. He didn’t expect to hear that his son's body had been essentially mutilated, awake for a surgery that the pain must have been unimaginable for. He saw the scars. He had first mistaken it for heart surgery and he supposes that he had been right in a way, only heart surgery under the worst conditions possible. 

Howard swallowed back the lump in his throat, not sure if he really wanted to hear anymore but he had been the one to pry the story from Tony, he had insisted that he needed to know the truth, so he was going to sit back and listen to everything that he had to say. 

“You created Iron Man then, in Afghanistan?”

“They wanted me to build weapons. I refused.”

Howard flashed back to an all too familiar moment with Hydra demanding that he create a better serum, better weapons. The pain that he could endure until his family’s lives were placed on the line. He felt like Tony deserved to know he wasn’t alone.

“Hydra wanted much of the same. They didn’t like my answer.”

Tony met Howard’s eyes and a flickering of understanding crossed between them. Both men did what they had to do. 

“Mine either. After hours of waterboarding though I didn’t care much about anything other than not getting my head dunked again. Yinen was the one who inspired the escape. We made a crude design of the suit you saw and we blew every bastard that we could to hell. Yinsen didn’t make it, but do you know what he told me? ”

Howard could only wordlessly shake his head.

“He told me not to waste my life. I’ve spent every minute of every day since then trying to live up to his sacrifice. It’s why I became Iron Man and why I always will be. I’ll never live up to the man that Yinsen was, the best I can do is fly around in a suit and fight bad guys.”

“Is it working?”

“Someday are better than others,” he replied voice gravelly, head and heart filled with images of Yinsen and Charlie Spencer. Rhodey falling to the Earth. A wormhole over Stark Tower. Tony put his head in his hands and let loose a shaky breath, trying to keep it all together. 

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” Howard spoke lowly, his eye downcast. 

“There’s a lot to be sorry for Howard. You can’t be sorry for something you had no control over.”

Howard snorted. “Pepper said the same thing. It doesn’t stop me from feeling that way.”

“Stane had us all fooled. He always had a good poker face. I guess we just never realized how deep that went. He had been double dealing under the table, under my nose for years. If anyone should be sorry it’s me. I was too caught up in my own bullshit that I just let Obie really run the company so I could be free to do whatever I wanted. I had it coming trust me.”

“You honestly believe that you deserved to be blown to hell and held hostage by terrorists?”

Tony just shrugged his shoulder and took another drink leaving Howard to be stunned.

“That’s bullshit.”

“Maybe.”

“Obadiah’s death?”

“Faked, or at least the circumstances were, by Shield no less. He wanted the reactor to make his money off of and when I didn’t give it to him he took it from my chest literally and left me to die again, but luckily I had a spare. Stane made his own suit, this, big, ugly, ironmonger kind of thing. Pepper and I stopped him.”

“The overload at the factory.” Howard stated as the pieces finally completely slotted into place.

They lapsed into an uneasy silence after that, Howard processing and Tony working to push the trauma back into the little box in his mind he kept it locked away in. 

There would definitely be nightmares tonight. 

“So, now you know. It doesn’t make it any easier does it?” Tony questioned darkly.

He finished his glass once more, dropping it with a clang against the bar and stood up from the chair with ease and walked away. He never stumbled or faltered, made no indication of the amount of alcohol that he had consumed as he brutally gave Howard every detail that he had asked for and pressed for. Howard thought that spoke more volumes as to Tony’s coping methods than anything else.

He supposed he really shouldn’t have put off that alcoholism talk after all, as he finished his own drink and ruminated on the night's events.

* * *

“Boss...Boss...get up.”

Tony groaned wearily as Friday’s voice filled his head, pulling him from his nightmare. His head was pounding and his throat felt dry because he had been drinking, not because Obie had ripped the arc reactor from his chest. He took a few deep breaths to calm his racing pulse.

It had been a long time since he had drank so much and he really wasn’t appreciating the hangover he was left with. He sat up slowly, the world tilting on its axis just a bit.

“Fri, what time is it?” he asked trying to figure out his surroundings. He was in his lab, on the old beat up leather couch he had kept in his labs since his MIT years. That would explain the neck stiffness at least. 

“It’s 7am. You’ve been asleep for approximately two and a half hours.”

“Not nearly long enough,” he groaned and turned back over to his side.

“BOSS. That’s not all,” she said quickly, the urgency more evident than ever in her tone.

“What are you going on about Fri? You have some code that needs updating or something?”

“Boss...General Ross is outside demanding to gain access to the compound, and you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Peter has officially hit the scene. Can you say Iron Dad? And wait...what's that there on the horizon??? Iron Grandpa?????????


	11. The Spider and the Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't what it has been about the past few Mondays but I can't catch a break. I wrote this entire chapter with my feverish one year old in one arm and typing with my other. On top of that I've been up since 330am so there may be spelling mistakes etc so apologies in advance. lol 
> 
> It doesn't cover as much as I initially wanted but see above. lol I wanted to make sure to get something out there and it's still 4k of content. There's some BAMF Pepperony and mildly steamy Pepperony to entice you all. Haha. 
> 
> We're halfway to 500 kudos. This will never stop blowing my mind. As always thank you so much for the kind responses and I'm glad everyone is excited for our extended Iron Family taking over in the future. You guys are so much fun to write for. Never stop being amazing in the comments. <3 <3 <3

Tony didn't know what the hell Ross was playing at showing up unannounced at the compound. Probably some kind of power play after the way Tony ran circles around him on the Raft a few days earlier, but he knew it wasn’t going to end well. 

A smaller voice whispered that maybe T'Challa or Cap leaked his secret, made some kind of deal with the secretary at the expense of his parents protection. He tried to quiet the notion. He hadn't known T'Challa long but the man was honorable and no more a fan of Ross heading the Accords than anyone else, and Steve just wouldn't do that. Howard had been his friend as well and after the way the men interacted… no Ross had to be here on a fishing expedition and there was no way he was going to get Tony to bite. 

Tony made himself as presentable as possible in the lab bathroom. There was nothing he could do for the bags under his eyes or his rumpled clothing unfortunately, the whiskey breath was easily remedied with a quick brush and some mouthwash. He ran his hand through his hair as he made his way up the stairs from the lab, taking the long way through the compound in case any wandering 'dead people' were needing to be hidden. 

All the common rooms were empty though. The whiskey from the night before put away and glasses in the sink. The rest of the compound was silent aside from a banging, echoing throughout the entryway. 

Tony had half expected Ross to be accompanied by a group of his men, a show of power meant to intimidate despite the fact that all Tony needed was his watch gauntlet to take them all out, however the older man stood at the door alone, pounding on the glass impatiently even when he saw Tony making his approach. 

“Friday, let him in,” Tony said and motioned towards the door. 

The locks disengaged with a hiss and Tony had to bite back a smirk when Ross stumbled forward slightly at the unexpected change. 

“It’s about damn time, Stark. I was beginning to think you were avoiding me,” the man said with a slimy grin, like he knew something that Tony didn’t. “I would have called but the last time we spoke I was given the impression I might be left hanging for awhile.”

“As far as priorities go I can’t say that you actively rank very high. So, what do I owe the honor of your distinct visit. As I said, I’m a busy man so I’d like to get this out of the way.”

Ross didn’t immediately answer, just took his time looking around the Compound, looking for what Tony couldn’t say but he didn’t like the possible implications.

“This won’t take long. Let’s sit down and have a discussion shall we?” he replied and brushed past Tony towards the common area.

Tony wanted to stop him but the man had been to the Compound many times and as much as he would like to deny him access to the common areas and the building in general it would only arouse suspicion, no matter what had occurred over the last few days. So, he fell in step beside Ross.

“You’re here alone?”

Tony’s eyes narrowed. “For the moment.”

“What happened to your face?” Ross asked, taking a seat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. He indicated the fresh lacerations from the last fight with the Winter Soldier that Tony definitely hadn’t had when he last saw the man.

“Occupational hazard.”

“Avengers business?”

Tony could almost scoff at the obvious attempts to catch him in a lie. Ross was going to have to do better than that.

“Stark Industries business. I am still the head of R&D you know?” 

“Of course,” Ross grinned and held a hand out to the seat behind him but Tony declined, staying on the other side of the island. “Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?”

“Little early for that, even for me.”

“You do look like you had a long enough night, I was hoping more for coffee?”

“Coffee maker is on the fritz, sorry,” Tony said, blatantly disregarding the full pot behind him that Friday automatically started every morning when he woke. 

Ross smirked. “Water then?”

Tony made an annoyed face before turning towards the cabinets behind him and purposefully finding the smallest glass available. The fridge was full of ice cold bottles of Fiji water but Tony instead ran the tap water, not even allowing it a few seconds to get cold before filling the glass and sliding it across to the elder man. Ross eyed it questionably before taking a drink of the tepid liquid.

“You going to tell me what this is all about yet?”

“You’re not very good at small talk any longer are you?”

“I don't have time for bullshit.”

Ross’ grin widened and he looked around the large, empty room. “It is unfortunate to see the current state of The Avengers, how empty this place is. Pity that it all could have been avoided, don’t you think?” he asked, taking another sip. “How is the rest of the team by the way? Colonel Rhodes?”

“Still paralyzed.”

“I bet you wish I sent my JSOC guys in now, don’t you?”

Tony just grit his teeth and clenched his good hand in a fist. He was trying to knock Tony off kilter with his digs, waiting and hoping for Tony to give something away but he still wasn’t sure what game the man was playing at, whether he had any kind of information to go off of or whether he was just being a prick. Bruce had mentioned years ago the kind of mind games that Ross would play when he was hunting him and this visit rang strongly as being in the same vein. 

“Just get to the point, you’ve stalled long enough.”

“Fine then, I come with a warning,” Ross said and dropped all air of pretense, the tension in the room ramping up as he set his dark gaze directly on Tony. “I know what you are doing, and I know who you are protecting. I can’t prove it of course or else I would have already run these doors down with a tank and you’d be in a cell with your buddies, but I wanted to make sure that you understood that I have eyes and ears everywhere.”

A lump of panic rose in Tony’s chest, his heartbeat quickening as he clenched and unclenched his fist at his side, out of Ross’ sight. Outwardly he looked no different but he couldn’t completely quell the anxiety.

_ He doesn’t know about them. There is no way to know about them. Breathe. _

“You’re using a lot of words for someone that is saying absolutely nothing.”

Ross laughed. “Let me put it this way. I know that you had a large delivery of clothing and personal items delivered here to the compound, enough for two people. I know that a Stark Industries jet flew in last night from Berlin with two male passengers,” he continued and drank the last bit of the water in the glass before standing up and coming around the island.

Tony squinted his eyes in what Ross probably thought was anger, like he’d been caught or busted, but in reality was more confusion than anything. He began to realize that whatever reach Ross insinuated that he had was not nearly as comprehensive as implied, the man trying to connect mismatching puzzle pieces together. 

“Your point?” Tony questioned, feeling more confused than before the man had begun speaking. 

“I know that you’re hiding Rogers and Barnes.”

_ Oh _ .

Tony could have burst out laughing. Ross didn’t know about his parents, whatever personal items he said he knew of being delivered to the compound the man didn’t know the specifics, that they were for two different genders. He knew of the flight from Berlin but didn’t have access to a passenger manifest to even know it was Happy on the flight. Peter’s name was protected regardless, listed under the alias of an actual SI junior R&D member. He definitely had no idea that the former Avengers leader and his friend were safely hidden away in Wakanda. 

The elder man laid his entire hand out to Tony and had no idea how easy he’d made it to call his bluff.

“Grasping at straws again?”

“You’d wish that were the case, wouldn’t you Stark? Let’s get something straight between us. I have never cared for you or your family. When you made the “moral” decision to stop protecting the troops with your weaponry and then openly unveiled your ultimate display of narcissism with the Iron Man suit, I thought that was the worst you could get. You continued to prove me wrong. Walking into that bar and insulting me, protecting that monster Banner. This entire team that was created to prevent loss of life but only seems to bring more chaos and destruction wherever you go, just ask the poor people of Sokovia, oh wait you can’t. Sokovia doesn’t exist anymore,” the man said with a sneer, standing at his full height to try and tower over Tony, as he tried to punctuate every sentence like it was a slap to the face.

Tony stood and bared it though. What the man was saying was no worse than the things he blamed himself for already even if not entirely accurate.

“I thought once you signed the Accords that perhaps you had finally come to your senses but I see it now as the ploy it was to make sure that there was always someone in place to obstruct the will of the people. To protect your buddies. Well, guess what? Your team is behind bars and when I find out where you’re hiding the other two, you’ll be right there with them. The capture of this Zemo guy doesn’t erase the men that were killed in pursuit of Barnes in Bucharest or Rogers act of treason assisting him.”

“Sounds to me like you’re just spinning your wheels and you don’t have any kind of actual proof or intel on me, Ross. You’re not as squeaky clean as you try to pretend either. Tell me, does the UN council know of the conditions of the team on the Raft?” Tony asked, his voice low and dangerous.

Ross’ blue eyes stared piercingly at Tony’s, a twitch of his cheek giving away just enough of his apprehension at the mention of the Raft.

“You want to make this a game of secrets and shadows, Stark, I can certainly find my share of mud and bury you in it. How many glasses of alcohol do you have in the evening? I’m sure the UN would have concerns over one of the last remaining superheroes, someone who is supposed to be on call 24/7, possibly being in a drunken state, unable to safely pilot the suit. It’d maybe even give them reason to finally take the suit from your spoiled hands.”

“I’d like to see them try. Hasn’t worked out for them yet. Besides, you and I both know I’m not that man anymore, haven’t been since I became Iron Man.”

Aside from the previous night Tony couldn’t even remember the last time he had had anything stronger than a glass of wine or champagne, usually at a charity gala. It took everything in him to not scream these facts to him but as always, that was what Ross wanted. He’d poke and probe for weak points, waiting to be snapped at so he could use it as a weapon, more dangerous than any Tony had ever created. He would never understand how this man had made it onto the Accords panel. 

Ross stepped ever closer into Tony’s personal space but Tony didn’t back down, even as Ross towered a full head over him, broad shoulders open and threatening. 

“You sure about that? Your eyes are a little bloodshot,” he said lowering his voice and reaching around Tony, placing his empty water glass into the sink and grabbing for one of the other ones sitting in the sink. The glass he pulled held just the smallest hints of whiskey at the bottom, amber drops rolling around the bottom around as he sniffed slightly around the rim. “Perhaps, it’s not so far in the past as you’d wish. We all have our demons right?”

Ross’ smile was predatory.

“If you don’t have anything of actual importance to discuss with me then I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Ross chuckled and placed the glass back in the sink, motioning towards it with his hand. “Two glasses. I thought you were alone, here? Who’s your drinking buddy?”

Tony opened his mouth to respond, some jab or dismissal to get the man the hell out of his kitchen when he heard footsteps approaching behind him. Everything in his mind instantly flew out the window at the thought of his mother or Howard walking into the room and what Ross would do, when the person spoke up.

“Not that it is any of your concern but I was here with Tony last night,” Pepper said as she crossed the room looking immaculately put together as always, and if the fire in her eye were any indication, ready to kick Ross’ ass.

Ross flinched in surprise as Pepper came to Tony’s side, pressing a light kiss to his cheek. Of all the people that could have appeared it was clear that he had not been expecting the CEO.

“You drink whiskey, Ms. Potts?” he asked skeptically.

“Have you ever tried running a Fortune 500 company, Secretary Ross? Sometimes red wine just won’t cut it, again not that it is any of your business at all,” she said turning her full ire to the man in question. “And did I hear you threatening and harrassing my head of R&D? The lawyers SI keeps on retainer will be very interested to get the playback on this particular conversation. When they’re done with you, you’ll be lucky to have a rank, let alone a high level government position.”

Ross tried to laugh it off but there was nothing joking in Pepper’s fierce expression. Tony forgot just how much he loved watching Pepper absolutely eviscerate anyone who threatened anyone or anything she cared about. He’d seen her do it in the boardroom and press conferences alike, though nothing could compare to being the one defended. His cheek still felt warm where her lips had been and he had to distract himself from the ache of  _ want,  _ as this was neither the time or place for  _ that  _ or their relationship. 

_ Damn.  _

“Calm down, Mr. Stark and I were just having a friendly conversation. No need for such posturing.”

“Sure as friendly as a spider to a fly."

The older man just glared and turned his gaze back to Tony. “I’ll be in touch. Remember, the UN has a close watch on you.”

Tony waited until Friday confirmed that Ross was off the compound grounds before turning to Pepper.

"I appreciate the assist, but really Pepper, a fly? I'm not quite so defenseless," he teased. 

Pepper just rolled her eyes and watched him, shuffle over to the coffee pot to finally retrieve his first cup of the day. He offered her a cup just as she liked it with cream and two sugars. she studied him over the top of her mug and sipped slowly. 

"You didn't come back to bed last night," she ventured softly. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry…"

"Did you speak to Howard? He was really keyed up yesterday."

"We had a few drinks…" he motioned to the sink. "Told him about Obie. I think he regrets asking."

"Can you blame him?" 

Tony shook his head silently and Pepper reached her hand out to squeeze his shoulder. 

"Are  _ you  _ okay?" She asked gently. 

He deflected her question easily, not wanting to dwell any longer, just wanting to remember how vehemently Pepper defended him, how reminiscent it was of years passed. 

"Do you ever just miss the good old days, when the world was smaller and it was just you and I? No government overlords, no people back from the dead, just us and maybe Rhodey and Happy? Everything was so much simpler." 

"Oh you mean like back when I was patching you up nearly everyday after you went off to destroy every weapon cache Jarvis could find? Or when you were slowly dying from palladium poisoning and instead of telling me you did your best to self destruct and alienate everyone around you?" She questioned back but not severely. There was a hint of teasing in her tone and even some longing of her own for the past.

"Well, when you put it that way…" he grinned.

"Our lives have never been simple, Tony. Even before Iron Man."

“I know. I sometimes wonder if Iron Man just made everything worse, instead of better.”

He averted his eyes to study the ground, not wanting to see any judgement from Pepper. He needn’t have worried though. She inhaled deeply, taking her time to chew over his statement.

“I used to think Iron Man was a cause for a lot of our problems. Before Ultron and Sokovia…” she trailed off and shrugged her shoulder. “Your heart has always been in the right place though, no matter what happened. Just like it’s in the right place now as Tony Stark, with the Accords, your family, Rhodey and everything else that’s been dumped in your lap.”

Tony offered a small smile. “Thanks, Pep.”

“Anytime,” she smiled back, and squeezed his shoulder as she moved around him to the fridge. She rooted around for a moment before retrieving a couple blueberry yogurts. “I have a conference call with London, that’s actually why I’m even up so early on a Sunday. Shouldn’t take more than an hour optimistically.”

Tony let his gaze linger on Pepper as she moved around the room, grabbing a spoon and napkin. Pepper had always been the epitome of everything he wanted in a woman and every single day of this break he regretted how he’d taken her and their relationship seemingly for granted. He missed being able to hug her or kiss her whenever he wanted. He missed the small lingering caresses or just being able to close out the rest of the world and lay his head on her chest until life felt less overwhelming. 

He thought maybe he should tell her all of this with this new attempt to ease back into being Tony and Pepper, but just like he felt held back the previous night from hugging his new mentee, the words died upon his lips and he said nothing of importance.

“Y’know there’s real blueberries in the fruit drawer instead of that fake stuff.”

He would definitely have to continue to work on the emotional vulnerability. To be fair, Howard had drained nearly all he had the night before and the few hours that had passed since then wasn’t enough time to recharge.

“I like the fake stuff.”

Still. Maybe there was something he could offer. Small but honest.

“It wasn’t all bad between us, right?”

It was enough to catch Pepper off guard though she recovered quickly, her features softening as she moved forward and caressed his cheek like she used to. He turned into the touch, willing to show her what he could, of how much he missed and wanted this. 

“If it were all bad there would be nothing left to salvage.” Then she leaned forward and for a moment he panicked that she was moving in for a kiss and he was woefully under prepared, the taste of whisky still lingering, despite brushing and mouthwash, but she bypassed his lips completely, her cheek coming against his as she moved to whisper in his ear.

“Besides...remember Venice?”

Her soft breath tickled the shell of his ear and he felt a chill go down his body that had nothing to do with the temperature in the compound. 

Bogey and Bergman would always have Paris.

Tony and Pepper would always have Venice.

They’d been to Venice before they were a couple, but nothing could compare to after they first got together after the Stark Expo. It took four months for Tony to finally convince Pepper to take a break putting out his fires and take the vacation he wanted to whisk her away to before his birthday. Everything between them had still been so new and exciting, every touch and laugh and smile. They went sightseeing and played tourist, and Tony showed off his fluency of the Italian language wherever they went and especially when they went out to eat. All culminating with the cheesiest, moonlight gondola ride complete with a specially hired singer and accordion player. They’d only just made it back into their hotel room that night, their first night together, and honest to god the greatest sexual experience of his life to that point. He never believed in all that talk about sex being different with the person you love but he became a firm believer from that night and every night onward. 

They went there at least once a year from there on out but no visit ever compared to that first.

“How could I forget?” his voice came out in a hoarse whisper.

Pepper smiled and kissed his temple, then backed away and grabbed her breakfast like nothing had happened. 

“You know, it might be nice of you to make breakfast for your Mom. She was worried about you taking off before dinner yesterday. I’ll end Happy your way to make sure you don’t burn the place down.”

With that she was gone from the room.

Breakfast. Sure, he could manage that, but first a shower. A cold, cold shower. And during that time he’d have Friday start looking into Ross and all the way that Tony could get that man removed from the UN Accords council. Nothing would ever progress with him in charge of the US side. 

* * *

Maria was getting out of the shower when Howard finally began to stir from the bed. She kept a towel wrapped neatly around her head as she crossed over to the newly stocked closet and pulled out an outfit. Pepper had helped her navigate the kind of clothing that was popular now but also wouldn’t make her look like a fool. She appreciated the woman’s taste now more than ever as she slipped into the comfortable material.

“That look suits you,” Howard spoke softly from where he was propped up on one elbow, still looking disheveled and half asleep.

She smiled kindly in part for the compliment and in equal part for the way his hair stood up oddly in places. Maria always loved this most about being married, seeing someone so immaculately put together normally in public, in their truest form, no makeup or hair styling or fancy suits needed. It was grounding when you lived a life like theirs. 

“You came to bed very late. How did it go?”

The small smile that had crept up his lips fell and his brow narrowed. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Did you at least speak to him?”

“Yeah. Yeah, we spoke,” he mumbled and sat up the rest of the way in the bed, swinging his legs over the edge and looking down at the floor.

Maria decided to give him a little more space, relieved that he had at least spoken to Tony after having spent the entire evening on edge and brooding. She went back to the over large bathroom and dried her hair first with the towel and then used the new hair blower. Her dark roots were showing now more than ever and she wished that she’d be able to make a hair appointment sometime in the future. She wasn’t vain about much but this was definitely one of her peeves. 

When she returned to the room Howard had only moved so far as from the bed to the computer in the corner. Maria frowned. She wasn’t going to let him spend another day holed up in this room in front of that screen. She understood the desire to discover everything possible about this world but he was once again missing exactly what was in front of him for it. 

“Bathroom is free now,” she said encouragingly. Howard only mumbled something indiscernible under his breath and continued on.

“Howard,” she spoke again, a little more force in her voice and this time he turned away from the screen to look at her. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up?”

For a minute she thought he’d argue as he glanced back from the screen to her before shutting it down.

“You’re right,” he said and shuffled past her into the bathroom.

While he showered she picked him out his own set of clothing and laid it on the long counter. She went back to the main room and made up their bed as she had every morning since they’d been married and then patiently sat and waited for Howard to reemerge. 

“Is this an intervention?” he asked upon seeing the sight before him when he exited.

“Do you need an intervention?” Maria asked calmly.

Howard grinned. “No.”

“Then it’s not an intervention.”

“That’s a relief,” he murmured and finished fixing the collar of the polo shirt he wore. It was about as dressed down as he ever got outside of a garage.

“But…”

Howard groaned. “But what?’

“We need to talk. About our son and what happened last night.”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it.”

“It concerns me as well though wouldn’t you say?”

“Not necessarily.”

“Then tell me what it is you found out on the computer about him.”

Howard sighed and sat down on the bed beside her. He grasped her hand and rubbed his thumb over the white line where her wedding ring should have been. 

“I could find out on my own, you know? I’m sure Friday could help me, but I don’t want to. I want to hear it from you, if I can’t hear it from him,” she spoke assuredly, squeezing his hand gently.

“I’m trying to protect you, Maria.” His words were gentle but firm as she looked him in his eye.

“I’m not some piece of porcelain that is going to shatter at any provocation. I was down there in that Hydra base with you, I helped you in the lab, I helped us try to escape. I can deal with this too. Just like with Hydra though, we need to do this together, no matter what. We’re stronger together, remember?”

Maria had rarely ever pleaded with Howard. It wasn’t often that the two didn’t see eye to eye on most things but when they did it was usually in regards to their son. She was his mother though for God’s sake and she had a right to know exactly what had kept her husband up all night and then had him walking around like a ghost the rest of the day. Whatever it was she already knew it was bad, and she meant what she said, she could find out herself, but the purpose of being with a partner was to deal with the hard times together as a unit. Howard didn’t always understand that notion, even after over thirty years of marriage, so sometimes he needed a reminder.

“I’m not going to break,” she whispered to him again, needing him to understand. 

After a long pause he finally nodded his head, slowly. 

“Okay, I’ll tell you. You’re not going to like what I have to say though.”

Maria nodded her head. She already knew that, but knowing was the first step to understanding, so she sat quietly beside Howard on the bed as he spoke to her of Obadiah Stane and the undeniable pain of betrayal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please follow me on tumblr at [theherothechampiontheinquisitor](https://theherothechampiontheinquisitor.tumblr.com) or specifically follow my sideblog about this story [here for updates](https://12-16-91-stark.tumblr.com/) and info on any delays and chapter postings as well as gif sets and other content made specifically for the story. <3 Thank you and leave a comment below!


	12. The One with All the Fluff

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday everyone! I'm sorry these updates have turned into last Monday night/early Tuesday mornings, but thank you all for always being so patient. And thanks to everyone who sent well wishes to my kiddo. She ended up with the flu so it has been an exhausting week and what a better way to end an exhausting week than with fluff?
> 
> I figured we needed some soft moments to counteract all the drama and this chapter is probably 97% fluff. 
> 
> Also with this Tony and Happy scene, I just wanted to make it clear that I am 100% Tony and a total disaster in the kitchen. lol I literally youtubed a Gordon Ramsay omelet tutorial so enjoy that kids. lol 
> 
> Thank you all so very much for all the love (OVER 500 KUDOS) I'm dead. I'm working on responding to the previous chapter's comments now so please don't think I forgot about you. <3 Enjoy the fluff while it lasts kids and as always, scream and flail in the comments with me. <3 Love you guys. <3

Maria felt the inexplicable urge to run to her son and never let him go as Howard finished answering her questions, allowing her time to process all that he had found out. Now she understood. She understood how Howard could be so on edge, how he could walk around the compound like he’d seen a ghost.

Obadiah Stane, a man that they had called a friend, the best man at their wedding, had tried to kill their son multiple times, each way more horrifying than the last. She knew that Howard was feeling guilt but so was she. She had encouraged Obadiah to spend time with Tony when he’d come home on occasional weekends and breaks, whenever Howard was busy with SI or Shield and Jarvis had to accompany him. Obie had stepped in. And they got along like best friends, always had. The thought now made her sick to her stomach wondering how long the man had been playing them, how long it took for him to decide to try and kill their son. Was it only after they were gone or had it been from the start?

“You’re right. I didn’t like any of that,” Maria finally spoke for the first time. Maybe it wasn’t just a Stark boys thing to deflect with humor. She could see the appeal.

“Don’t do that,” Howard said softly, knowing exactly what was going through Maria’s mind because he had been through it all in the last day too. 

“I can’t help it.”

“I know.”

“I’m sorry for picking on you about your moodiness yesterday,” she said with an aborted laugh. “And that’s just a fraction of what you’ve found out I’m sure. I don’t think I want to hear about anymore for today if it’s all like that.I don’t think you should have had to try and digest all that at once, either.”

Howard shrugged, his thumb still rubbing circles over her hand comfortingly. He agreed in a way. He never did know when to stop, especially when the information had been so accessible to him like it was on the internet. Such a beautiful and dangerous technology all in one and he had been ready to start it all over again from the moment that he had woken up. He was thankful Maria had been there to pull him back. 

“He’s...okay now?” Maria hazarded.

“You saw the scars.”

Of course she had seen them. If she thought she’d been horrified before…

“Thank you for telling me,” she said and leaned into his chest, arm going around him in a hug. 

His cologne was familiar and comforting as he breathed him in, his arms going around her. It was amazing how Friday had been able to get them nearly everything that they had had before, brand names and all. She had missed this. 

“Are you ever going to get rid of this?” she teased, running her hand across the stubble on his face.

“Nah. Figured I’d grow a beard like Tony’s. They’re fashionable at the moment. Or maybe I’ll just go completely clean shaven, ditch the mustache.”

“Howard Anthony Walter Stark, you shave off your mustache and I will never forgive you. Might even be forced to file for divorce.”

Howard laughed as the tension was finally dispelled from the room. “Not sure they grant divorce’s for dead people.”

“Yeah, I was thinking about that. We really need to figure out what we’re going to do. I don’t mind being here at this compound, lord knows we desperately need the time to ourselves as a family, to reconnect and...learn about the past,” Maria began cautiously. “But we can’t stay dead forever.”

“We’ll figure it out. Together, remember?” he responded and pressed a light kiss to the top of her head. 

A soft knock at the doorway drew their attention and they turned to find Pepper standing in the doorway.

“Sorry, to interrupt. Howard, I was hoping to catch you before breakfast. I wanted to see if you’d be interested in seeing some of Stark Industries new product lines? I just finished a conference call and had all the information pulled up anyways.”

Maria could have laughed at how immediate the man’s attention was switched at the thought of seeing new technology, and Stark Technology at that, though he tried not to appear too eager. 

“That would be great, honestly. I’m sure what I was able to see online wasn’t even a fraction of what’s available.”

“Not even close,” Pepper said with a smile and turned to Maria. “Tony is making some breakfast for everyone this morning if you want to go join him? I sent Happy in to supervise, so it should be something edible.”

“Try as I might, cooking was never something his mind took to very well,” Maria laughed and stood from the bed as she and Howard made their way to the door. 

“Not much has improved, but with Happy helping there is hope. Last time Tony made me breakfast it took three hours and was simultaneously burnt and raw at the same time, something only he could pull off.”

“Thank you, Pepper,” Maria said, grabbing one of her hands and squeezing it, “for taking care of him.” She looked into her eyes meaningfully, Pepper bashfully mumbling a reply that might have been between ‘you don’t have to thank me’ or ‘it was my pleasure’ before offering another smile and heading off in the direction of the kitchen. 

Pepper and Howard watched her go down the hall for a moment before Pepper cleared her throat and turned her attention back towards Howard. 

“Shall we?” she asked and led the way, feeling a little more intimidated alone in the man’s presence.

She had no reason to be. She had seen him fairly vulnerable the day before and even if she hadn’t, she chewed up and spit out powerful men like him for a living. Pepper narrowed it down to her wanting to prove something to the man. He had said he had no problems with a female CEO but she wanted to further prove that she was capable.It was stupid. It was 2016, she was a strong and powerful woman in her own right and she and Tony weren’t even together anymore but she couldn’t help but wanting that extra validation.

And yet…

And yet, maybe there was a part of her that didn’t want acceptance just strictly speaking between former and current CEO’s. No, a part of her wanted to get the acceptance of just Howard, Tony’s dad. She already knew Maria was fond of her, Tony having even told her years ago that his mom would have loved her but Howard Stark was always a question mark. Maybe that was why he was so surprised when the man finally spoke up as they made their way up the staircase towards her office.

“You’re good at this.”

Pepper’s eyes narrowed as she looked at him with a confused smile. “Good at what?”

She watched as a small smirk tugged across the elder man’s features and almost gasped when he looked exactly like Tony did when he was impressed over something and trying not to show it. 

“Distracting people. Me with tech, Maria with Tony, Tony with a challenge.”

“Well, it’s either that or let you all collectively whole yourselves up until you all go crazy. I prefer to avert disaster at all costs.”

“He cares about you still, you know? I know it’s not my place or business as he made explicitly clear last night, but I just wanted to make sure you knew. You and Maria aren’t so different. Without you guys we probably would all go crazy.”

Maybe she didn’t need to work for any acceptance. 

Maybe she had it all along. 

* * *

"So you aren't going to freak out about my dead parents coming back?" Tony asked nonchalantly over his shoulder as he added eggs to his bowl.

Happy was more on edge about how hard Tony was cracking the eggs against the counter, bits of yolk spilling out, than he was about the topic of conversation.

"I admit I was jet lagged enough yesterday to not question it but even at this point I'm not surprised by the things in your life anymore. Aliens, Gods, teenagers that crawl on walls? Why can't your parents be zombies?"

"Except they can't be zombies. They're not undead, they never died," Tony corrected as he stirred the bowl.

"Close enough. Pay attention now, you're burning the vegetables!"

Happy reached across the way to remove the diced peppers and onion and tomato from the heat but Tony batted him away.

"Let me do it."

"But you're burning it! You're supposed to sauté them not turn them into dust. This isn't a lab experiment."

Tony blocked Happy again and swirled the vegetables in the pan and took it off the heat. 

"I appreciate the help, but remember our motto today?"

"I don't remember there being a motto."

"Make a man an omelet you feed him for a day but let him figure it out himself he can make omelets forever right?"

"I don't think that's how that quote goes."

"Same difference."

Happy was sure that today was going to be the day that he died. Truly. The big one was coming. The heart attack to end all heart attacks, putting the guy from Sanford and Son to shame and it was only fitting that Tony Stark was going to be the cause.

"Now don't forget to add your seasoning!" 

"Right. What seasoning?"

Happy took a deep, hopefully calming, breath. "You're hopeless. Who taught you to cook?"

"Uhhh no one?" Tony answered helpfully with a grin to counter Happy's dead inside expression.

"I'm so surprised. Now look, a pinch of salt and pepper…" he said, expertly reaching around the younger man and adding the ingredients to his own bowl of egg mixture.

Tony clumsily followed along, adding a "pinch" of salt that was probably past the amount of healthy sodium intake for a human being, and only just managing to turn his face into his sleeve to sneeze when he accidentally got a whiff of too much pepper. Happy just grimaced and continued on.

"Stir it in, let it get all mixed up and then pour it into the skillet," he demonstrated.

“Pour this now?"

"Yes, pour it...Slowly!" Happy chastised as it plopped sloppily into the pan, some getting onto the stove top. "There. Now, gently move the egg around to the center- gently! Gently! Are you scrambling eggs or making an omelet?"

"Omelet?" He responded innocently.

"Not like that you aren't. Anyways it was rhetorical. Okay, now gently lift that side up and let the pan do its thing...easy...you are a human disaster. How did you ever make it this far in life?"

"A lot of money?"

"As long as you know the truth." Happy motioned for the vegetables and spooned some out onto his omelet and watched Tony do the same. "Okay, now just fold it over and do that process over again. Good. That one looks practically edible. I give it a 75% chance you don't kill anyone with it."

Tony probably should have been insulted but considering he'd gone from certain death to a quarter chance, he felt pretty proud. It hadn't taken him three hours either to get to this point either. 

He just started cracking some more eggs when his phone began to buzz in his pocket for what felt like the millionth time in the last five minutes. He wanted to grab it but his hands were covered in eggs.

"Hey, Hap can you check my phone, it keeps buzzing and I'm busy."

Happy looked up from his meal with an eyebrow raised. "Where's it at?" 

"Here in my pocket," Tony grinned and stuck his hip out towards him. 

"So, I'm answering your phone now? I'll just add being a receptionist, babysitter and chef to my resume…" Happy said, not even flinching at having to put his hand into Tony's pocket to retrieve the phone. He returned back to his seat and plate of food at the breakfast bar with a sigh.

"Looks like … ten missed texts from spider boy. Oh god he's one of those texters that sends a new message with every sentence," Happy replied in horror.

"Read 'em."

"Adding message reader too? I see how it is. 

_Mr. Stark!_

_Finished work for my summer class early._

_Aunt May thinks more intern work will be good for me._

_I'm free this weekend._

_And every other day._

_Like today. And tomorrow._

_Spiderman is ready for his next mission too._

_👊👊👊_

_Iron Man can be my sidekick._

_Whaddaya say Mr. Stark?_

Tony turned towards Happy sharply after the last couple messages.

"Uh, no. Write him back, Happy. First of all, Parker, Iron Man isn't a sidekick, if anyone was to have a sidekick then Spiderbaby would be mine. And not even then because that's saved for honeybear..."

"Slow down, go back, I don't text that fast."

"Okay, how far back?"

"What did you say after, 'write him back, Happy?'"

"Okay, let's switch jobs," Tony motioned to the stove and back to his phone, wiping his hands off haphazardly on his jeans as he took the phone back. 

Tony pulled up Peter’s contact information and immediately clicked the camera to video call him. He had to make sure the kid knew in no uncertain terms that Iron Man was not in fact a sidekick. 

It took a couple of rings before the line picked up, the camera coming to life, and if the view and the mumbled curses were anything to go by, immediately dropped the phone on the ground.

“Shit- shoot, I mean. Crap. Mr. Stark are you there? Oh my god Peter don’t hang up on Iron Man,” the kid mumbled curly brown hair and then his young face finally coming into view instead of whatever he had crushed up under his bed. 

“Kid, you’re worse than Happy, what is this?”

“I’m so sorry, I dropped my phone, I didn’t think you’d video chat me, Mr. Stark. God this is so cool. “

“What kind of phone are you even working with, a Windows phone or something? Your video is terrible. Remind me to get you a Stark phone, but that’s beside the point, what’s this about me being your sidekick?”

Even over the pixelated camera Tony could see the slight nervous smile and accompanying laughter as Peter looked away from the camera and ran a hand through his disheveled hair.

“It’s a joke Mr. Stark. I mean obviously, as a junior Avenger member I would be--”

“Whoa, slow your roll, junior Avenger?”

“Well, yeah, cause I’m not a full member but I’m kinda like one in training so i thought-”

“Don’t think. You’re not an Avenger, you’re what did you call it again? Friendly neighborhood Spiderboy?”

“Spiderman.” Peter patiently corrected.

“Exactly. Not an Avenger.”

“Yet.”

“Ever with that attitude. Anyways, are you really done with this summer school business?”

“Yeah, I mean we only had this last week to go but I went ahead and finished the coursework last night...or this morning...it kind of blends together, and the teacher accepted it so I’m good to go. Do you want me to come out to the Compound today? I am totally available, May has to work tonight anyways…”

“Did you even sleep at all last night?”

“Well, I fell asleep in the middle of one of my papers for a few hours so yeah that counts.”

“Okay, kid tell you what. Get you some rest, like actual sleep and I’ll have Happy swing by and pick you up tomorrow for some lab time.”

Peter dropped the phone again and groaned. “Tomorrow? Mr. Stark, I’m ready today.”

“Kid you can’t even hold onto your phone, I’m not letting you work on anything. Get some sleep, talk it over with May, your potential Uncle Happy will bring you back to the compound but only if you absolutely understand one thing,” Tony continued, ignoring protests from both Happy and the kid. “Iron Man is not a sidekick.You are my sidekick. Sort of. After War Machine. Like..”

“Like a junior Avenger member?” Peter supplied helpfully.

“You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.”

“Just one of the many qualities an Avenger should have.”

Tony gave the kid his best glare but there was no heat behind it. To be honest, Peter was the exact example of what an Avenger should be. If he weren’t so young, with his entire life ahead of him. He needed the chance to grow and go to college and have a life before he decided to devote his entire life to this business. It wasn’t all fun and games, much as the boy probably thought. The Accords and the following shitshow were proof enough of that.

“Eat. Sleep. See ya tomorrow, kid,” Tony said and hurriedly disconnected the call before he said something uncharacteristically nice.

“You sure told him, Boss,” Happy said from where he sat eating the rest of his breakfast, a new perfect omelet completed next to Tony’s 75% perfect creation.

“Don’t make me send May Parker a love note with your name on it,” Tony sniped back and Happy became infinitely more interested in his meal, even as he mumbled between bites.

* * *

This was the scene that Maria walked in on. Anthony poking and prodding at his bodyguard? Friend? The introductions the previous night had been hasty at best and she couldn’t be sure. He seemed in good spirits at least, laughing along at whatever the older man grumbled in response and she was reminded of years ago when Anthony would do everything he could to drive Jarvis to the point of exasperation. 

“Good morning,” she said politely, coming around to enter the room fully. 

Anthony turned her way with that same soft smile he had always reserved for her and she couldn’t help but to cross the room a little quicker, memories of her discussion with Howard urging her arms open up to him automatically. He returned the gesture and finally she was able to relax a little as they embraced.

Happy quietly made his excuses in the background before exiting the room, leaving mother and son behind.

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” Tony asked, pulling back slightly from the hug to look her in the eye.

Maria ran a soft hand across his cheek, thumb brushing against the old chicken pox scar at the corner of his eye that he'd had since he was four. She used to know all of his scars, know all the reasons he would cry, all of his successes. Waking up in this future and seeing him was almost like meeting a stranger in her son's skin. He looked like Anthony, he sounded like Anthony, but he wasn't that same boy that had been struggling to forge his own path outside his father's legacy. 

He had become more.

He became better.

But it was a difficult road for him to get there.

“Your father told me…”

Tony’s face became resigned. “How much?”

“Just about Obadiah. I don’t think I’m ready for anything more than that.”

He just nodded his head in understanding. “I’m okay,” he said quietly, letting her run her hand through his hair and whatever else her mind told her that she needed to do to care for him. 

Maria didn’t need words in times like these. She didn’t need all the sordid details to fixate on like Howard did to understand, all she had always needed was a grounding reassurance. 

Reassurance as a youth that her music could move people. Reassurance as she jumped head first into a marriage with one of the world’s most powerful men. Reassurance that she would be a good mother.

Now she just needed the reassurance that her only son was safe. So, she hugged him close, breathed him in, listened to the steady thrum of his heartbeat beneath her ear and she felt herself relax, her mind begin to quiet in a way that usually only happened when she played the piano. 

“I’m glad you’re here, I made us breakfast. Well. I made my breakfast. Happy made yours, I had an important phone call,” he said, leading her to a place to sit and placing the still warm omelet before her and pouring her a glass of orange juice.

“You’ll have to thank him for me. Though I do appreciate your effort as well.”

“I know it’s not authentic italian lasagna or anything but I haven’t quite worked up to that level yet,” he winked and took a bite. “It was a very nice dinner to come home to last night.”

“It would have been better if you had sat down to dinner with us and not ate it cold. You caused quite a stir when you left, I don’t know if you realize it.”

“I know,” he replied, dipping his head and taking another bite. This was easily the best thing he’d made for himself. He amended Happy’s seventy-five percent assessment to an eighty, easily.

“Not for the reason you may think. You told your father you had to go pick up your kid. I think we both spent a good twenty minutes in an excited frenzy,” she grinned. “I couldn’t understand how that had never been told to us yet, but then your Pepper set the record straight. This is a child that you mentor?”

Tony’s face scrunched up. “Yeah, he’ll actually be visiting tomorrow. You _both_ were excited?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“Kinda. Huh.”

His face did that look it had always done when he was trying to fit pieces of an equation together and came up lacking. Maybe she had been wrong in her assessment of him being a stranger. There was plenty left of the boy that she had known if you just knew where to look. 

She hadn’t been lying though. Howard had come to her in the kitchen, his face initially a mask of guilt and pain before Tony’s words had seemed to sink in to his mind and he questioned her about whether she knew Tony had a child. The agony melted away and was replaced by a sort of excitement normally reserved for his designs as he repeated what Tony had said to him. 

Neither of them had really expected to live to see any grandchildren. They had had Anthony when they were old, years and years of trying finally paying off one beautiful May morning. When their son grew up, Maria felt she had been blessed enough with what she had, never hoping for more. Anthony certainly didn’t seem interested in settling down or starting a family, though she could hardly blame him after how fast he had been made to grow up. He deserved the chance to be young. 

Waking up twenty-five years in the future though…

Maria would be lying if she hadn’t hoped for such a thing that first day when she was forced to process their time jump. 

Pepper came in not long after she and Howard had begun discussing the possibilities, though he was outwardly more reserved there was a twinkle in his eye that Maria recognized, and she corrected the mistake.

“All hope isn’t lost though, I’d say.”

“Hm?” Tony questioned, still a little lost in thought.

“Have you and Pepper ever discussed it?” she pried a little, figuring he owed her this much after that slip of the tongue.

He let loose a nervous huff and averted his eyes away, an unmistakable pink tinge burning his ears and face.

Little did Maria know that there had been more than a discussion. There had been a legitimate scare years ago after he had destroyed his suits and before he was pulled back into the Avengers to hunt Hydra bases. Pepper had taken antibiotics following a cold, lessening the effect of her birth control. What was eventually discovered to be a false positive had led to a deep discussion on children and their lifestyles, what they wanted in the future. They both liked the idea but didn’t see how it could ever be feasible. 

“It doesn’t matter, we’re not together anymore.”

“You both keep saying that and yet…” Maria trailed off taking a sip of her orange juice.

“And yet?” he questioned wryly.

“She’s here with you now when she doesn’t have to be?”

“She’s my friend.”

“You’re sharing a room?”

“How did…”

“I’m your mother. I know everything,” she offered a big smile.

“Mother and matchmaker all in one, huh?”

“Of course. I am obligated as your parent to always steer you towards what’s best for you, and Pepper Potts is best for you. It doesn’t take much to tell that.”

He nodded his head unable to hide the full grin spreading across his face even as he pretended to be exasperated by her. 

“We’re working on it,” he offered and Maria was pleased.

If this was what it took to get these two to wake up and see what was in front of their faces then she would happily pester her son until the end of time. 

“I’ve missed this,” he spoke again, quieter, chin tucked against his chest.

Maria reached her hand out to grip his good arm and pulled him close, resting her head against his shoulder, soaking in the moment.

“Me too.”

* * *

The rest of the day passed by like any other lazy Sunday, Tony was surprised to discover. After breakfast with his mother, Pepper had returned with his father in tow and for the first time since they had gotten to the compound the man was talking animatedly, a smile on his face and hands gesturing wildly. Pepper smiled and asked questions but she had that same face he recognized from when he would go into details about the technical aspects of a project, eyes slightly glazed but always polite and encouraging even if most of what was being said to her was as good as gibberish. 

It was a side to his father that he hadn’t seen very often and he shot her a questioning look that she just met with an encouraging smile as she turned Howard towards him.

“Those are questions best left to discuss with our head of R&D, and won’t you know it, there he is!”

Pepper left the men standing awkwardly in front of each other steering Maria over to the comfy couches and large tv and asking her how she felt about Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep as Friday brought ‘ _The Bridges of Madison County_ ’ on the screen.

Both men wrinkled their noses and Tony sighed feeling the urge to flee from the sappy romance film. 

“Well, Howard, today is your lucky day,” he sighed and motioned for the man to follow him as he headed towards the private elevator leading to the lab.

Howard’s eyes widened as he recognized the destination but he didn’t make any comment as they entered and Tony had Friday take them down.

“Welcome to the playground,” Tony said, opening his arms wide when the doors opened into the room. “Just don’t touch anything.”

Howard could have died a happy man at that point, happy enough anyways that he was willing to overlook the slight condescending tone as Tony led him into the open lab area. 

There were projects and parts scattered about all over nearly every surface, but sprawled out in an orderly chaos that Howard could recognize. There was a method behind every scrap and every placement. 

He leaned in for a closer look at some of the projects as they passed them when he caught sight of a pair of glasses that looked out of place. Howard reached for them without much thought, figuring maybe Tony had just left them there when a trilling noise came to his side, followed by a couple jabs to his side.

“DUM-E, no, it’s okay,” Tony said coming back towards Howard.

Howard was shocked that he recognized the bot though the last time he had seen it, it hadn’t been quite so mobile.

DUM-E made a few more inquiring beeps, his claw now poking at Howard’s hand where he held the glasses.

“Yes, I know he is touching stuff even after I asked him not to but we don’t need to attack him,” he replied reaching out and taking the glasses from Howard’s hand. 

“Is that?”

“Yep.”

“After all these years?”

“Of course. You didn’t expect for me to leave him behind did you? If it wasn’t for DUM-E I never would have created Jar-” Tony stopped mid sentence, mouth clicking shut, a brief flash of pain working over his features. “Um. Friday. I never would have made Friday.”

DUM-E whirred sadly and this time nudged Tony comfortingly.

Howard was missing something here and he wasn’t sure what.

“Anyways, had to rebuild his framework and replace some parts after the Malibu house was toast but he and U have never been better.”

DUM-E seemed to nod appreciatively before poking at Howard’s stomach again and twirling around, immediately knocking off nearly everything that had been meticulously laid out on the workspace. He made a whirr of what Howard could only imagine was an apology as Tony covered his eyes and massaged his temples.

“I updated the bodies not the coding,” he explained, DUM-E’s continued clumsiness. “Aside from some basic upgrading it felt too much like messing with their minds.”

Howard nodded, trying and failing to hide an amused expression. 

“What’s with the glasses?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Oh. BARF.” Tony said as if that explained everything.

“Barf?” Was Tony being funny?

“Binarily Augmented Retro Frames. I know, i’m working on the name. Just a little therapy experiment, nothing for you to worry over. Come here, there is something I actually wanted to show you,” he said, tossing the glasses on the table and heading towards a collection of cars.

Howard glanced back at the glasses one more time, moving only when DUM-E pushed around him to pick up the mess on the floor.

All of the cars were expensive looking and if Howard was honest, gorgeous. There wasn’t much that he and Tony agreed on when he was growing up but cars had always seemed to be the best middle ground.

Tony stopped in front of the only car that was covered, taking hold of the sheet and dramatically revealing the 1932 Roadster that he and Tony used to work on together for years. He was unable to hide his shock and awe at this reveal, rushing forward to run a hand across the sleek frame. 

“Holy shit,” he mumbled to himself.

“Luckily I had this stored when the house went down. I never finished rebuilding the engine though. I figured that this would make good busy work for you for the time being. I only request that you don’t mess with anything else in here. Seriously. Not until I can give you a full technology rundown.”

Tony was talking but all Howard could think about was about ten different ways that he could improve upon everything under the hood. 

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Howard leaned forward for a closer look. 

He did recognize this for what it was though. An olive branch. He figured it was best to extend the same favor. 

“Well, are you going to bring us some tools to get to work on this or what?” Howard asked, turning his gaze towards Tony.

Tony startled a little having not expected to be invited to work beside his father. He carefully schooled his features.

“You want help?”

“May as well finish what we started,” he replied with a shrug. “Your mother is going to kill me when I ruin this new shirt though.”

Tony smiled tentatively. “Tunes?”

“Not AC/DC,” Howard cautioned, remembering how Tony loved to make the entire garage rattle at the mansion

“Something neutral then?”

“Fine, with me.”

Tony nodded his head and turned to get the needed tools.

“Friday, play The Rolling Stones.”

As the opening chords to ‘ _ Satisfaction _ ’ began to play, for the first time Tony felt a beacon of hope began to blossom inside of him. Maybe there was a chance for a reconciliation. He couldn’t say for sure, there was so much bullshit they still needed to wade through from the past and he knew Howard still had plenty of hard questions to ask about the last few decades but this was a real start.

* * *

Howard and Tony spent the rest of the day working on the Roadster, interrupted only a couple of times by DUM-E and U bringing them Tony’ favored green protein shakes to keep up their energy. They kept up a steady stream of chatter the entire time about cars and mechanics, safe topics. 

It was after midnight when they finally called it quits for the night, engine parts in pieces all around them on grease strewn towels. Tony’s shoulder ached, he had taken his sling off again to work, but he had no regrets over it even as it throbbed from the overuse. 

Pepper was already in bed but she stirred when he came into the room.

“Hey,” she called in the darkness.

“Hey,” he replied back with a soft smile. “Just going to…” he pointed towards the bathroom with his grease stained hands and Pepper watched him go.

After a much needed shower he threw on some sweats and a t-shirt and joined Pepper. He was surprised when she sidled up to him, wrapping an arm over his chest and laying her head on his shoulder. For a moment he didn’t dare to breath.

“Have a good day?” she mumbled sleepily.

“Actually? Yeah, I did. You?”

“I think I've done pretty well to catch your mom up on the most important chick flicks of the last few decades," Pepper said and tilted her head up to press a soft kiss against his jaw. "I knew you and Howard just needed another push.”

He rubbed his hand up and down her back and she sighed and settled against him further. Riding high on his first pleasant day in months, Tony leaned down and placed a lingering kiss on Pepper's forehead. She sighed softly, and so feeling emboldened he kissed her again and ran his hand across her cheek. 

It wasn’t the way that he wanted to kiss her, but as everything else that night had been, it was a start in the right direction. 

He fell asleep that night with Pepper in his arms, his body tired out from a satisfying day of work, his mind for once not full of heavy thoughts and regrets. Instead he thought about his earlier conversation with his mother. The beginnings of where he saw his life going with Pepper. What she might want from him in the relationship and what he hoped to have with her. 

The last thing on his mind before he finally drifted off was if it really would have been so bad if that test all those years ago had been positive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was fun right? Happy, hopeful, with only the tiniest sprinklings of angst. And Peter will be front and center next chapter for everyone who has been clamoring for it. <3 Til next week. <3


	13. The Importance of Being Honest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is 2am Tuesday. A thing that is occurring more and more often. I work at 6am. It's going to be a long day lol. This was another one of those chapters that refused to be written unfortunately, but damn it I got it down. lol 
> 
> And I am sure everyone is probably sick of hearing this by now but I just wanted to say that I hope everyone is staying safe during this crazy crisis. I'm trying to clean up some half finished fluff pieces in my google docs to post while everyone is stuck at home so keep an eye out. We'll see how it goes. My older two kids are home from school until next month so it might make things a little more difficult but regardless this story will continue to be updated every Monday/Tuesday.
> 
> Also happy 3 month birthday to my posting this story!!! <3 They grow up so fast!
> 
> Stay safe. I love you all so much. Thank you for all the love and support. <3 Scream at me in the comments. It makes my day. <3

Pepper had always been an early riser. It was a quality that she both loved and hated about herself. Hated mainly because no matter how tired she was, what time she’d gone to bed or whatever good intentions she tried to fool herself into believing she’d sleep in, promptly at 6am she would be awake. This especially had been a detriment when Tony was at his most party boy eccentric, requiring her to have to curtail and corral him into all hours of the night and day, only to promptly be back up and at it when the first bird began to sing. 

Sometimes though, she absolutely loved it. An early start on the day meant that the world was usually still sleeping, everything around her so silent and peaceful. She could enjoy an early morning coffee and watch the sun rise as she began her routine. It also meant she could complete more tasks in the day, or on her rare off days she was afforded the time to take care of little household chores that had been building up and still have time for reading her novels or catching up on television shows.

She also loved it later on for days like today, when she’d wake up to Tony’s warm, solid build beside her, hair tousled, snoring slightly. It was rare for Tony to ever be at peace, even in sleep, so she cherished these little glimpses whenever they came around, soaking them in and memorizing every line of his face. 

Pepper laid on her side, snuggled against him, his arm still dutifully wrapped around her though she was sure that it had to have been numb by now. She quietly studied his face and caressed the grey stubble that had formed on his cheeks overnight. 

She had really missed waking up to Tony beside her while they were on their break. Though she supposed they still weren’t technically together again, more testing the waters than anything, but this felt right. It felt normal. Much better than the months that she woke up every morning alone. 

Her every instinct thrummed for her to lean the small distance between them and kiss Tony awake as she had so many times before, but that was decidedly not how friends woke each other up. A peck on the cheek or forehead here and there was friendly. A kiss on the mouth was crossing the line. A line that she herself had established. She needed to be smart about this. They had only decided to be friends again a few days ago, she couldn’t automatically jump to the next level just because Tony was a cute sleeper.

They still had so much to work out. His guilt complexes need to fix everything, even when it wasn’t his responsibility, being one major hurdle. She tried to get him to talk to a therapist, after Ultron, since he wouldn’t talk to her, but that had been ignored. Instead Tony bought her a secluded lake house about an hour from the compound, talking about farms and retiring before doubling down on Avengers business and guiltily funneling his money and time into relief efforts. He pushed for Pepper to go visit the home and relax and he’d meet her later, only to never show up. 

It had been painful to bear witness to. A total regression from where he’d come after fighting Killian three years ago.

Even before Ultron he had started down the slippery slope when the Avengers pulled him back in. Date nights were traded in for Hydra hunting, relaxing evenings were stolen by the tech upgrades that were needed constantly from the team, which became upgrades to the tower, and creating the Iron Legion and then funding the entire team personally. It ended up leading him back down the rabbit hole of paranoia and he slowly slipped away from her. Stopped talking to her, stopped coming to bed at night, stopped showing up for SI business. She tried to catch him as he fell, one last ditch effort.. At every turn he had pushed her away further until they were practically strangers living in the same house.

Pepper didn’t ever want to go back to those days. 

She just wanted the man she loved back. The man that she would often daydream about marrying someday. The man she wanted to be the father of their children. It had always been, Tony and no amount of superficial waiting would change that, so she may as well just gather her courage, lean forward a little bit and kiss him…

“I can hear you thinking,” Tony mumbled and shifted beside her, breaking Pepper from her thoughts and those few extra inches she had crossed towards him without realizing it.

“I’ll try to be quieter next time.”

“You better. What has you so pensive at…” he opened one eye blearily to gaze at the bright colors of the clock before squeezing it shut again, “6:17am?”

She could tell him the truth. That the more she thought about it the more she wanted to skip the arbitrary friendship period, even though they still had so much to work out. That she was thinking about how nice it would be to maybe finally take that trip together to the lake house to renew their relationship. Or just how much she wanted to kiss him for real. None of those words would come though.

“Stock prices. The new product launch that’s coming up. All the emails that are probably overflowing my inbox after this weekend.”

Tony grimaced. “Only you could think about stock prices intensely enough to wake me up. Really, your entire body is tense. Is there something wrong I don’t know about?”

He finally opened his eyes up and let them rove over her form, trying to determine what was really going on.

“Everything is fine. Just getting into work mode,” she smiled reassuringly. God she was being such a coward and she didn’t even know why. Maybe because she had been the one to want to take it slow in the first place and now three days later all she could think about was his pouty lips. 

“Are you going into the office today?”

“No. I can work from here for now,” she said, finally sitting up and stretching. 

“Listen if you’re not too busy today I actually have someone that I would like you to meet.”

Pepper shot him a glance as she got out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom to begin her morning routine. “Another dead relative?”

“Not quite. The kid, Peter Parker, the one I'm sorta mentoring, Happy is going to bring him by around noon today. I think he will get a kick out of meeting the Stark Industries CEO, especially since he has this internship. I’m telling you Pep, the kid is really smart.”

She didn’t respond immediately, spending her time brushing her teeth and combing her hair. Working from home meant that she could at least skip the make up for today, or at least do the bare minimum. After another minute or two she stepped back out into the bedroom, eyes immediately going to where Tony was now sitting at the edge of the bed.

“He’s really important to you,” she said matter of factly. 

“Yeah he is,” he said quietly, looking away from her as he spoke.

This was significant. The last time that Tony had shared an interest in a child it had been Harley Keener during the Mandarin incident. The two still kept in frequent contact, trading emails and phone calls. Tony still quietly made payments on the Keener family mortgage in his gratitude for the family's help. Tony loved that kid in his own way and now it seemed he was well on his way with much of the same for Peter Parker. 

She came to stand before him still clad in her pajamas, and brought her hand to his chin and tilted his face to look her in the eyes.

“I can’t wait to meet him,” she said honestly.

He smiled back at her brightly and she felt the little urge, the mental mind tug that she should just lean down just so and kiss him, deeply, passionately. Kiss him because she wanted to be with him forever, not just through this situation with the Avengers and his parents, but because they were Tony and Pepper and they just belonged together. Three months wasn’t a long time in the grand scheme of life but she had been teasing herself with these pecks on the cheek, and letting him talk her into sleeping by his side and falling back into their roles in a relationship, without the actual benefits of the relationship.

Tony cleared his throat and she realized she had just been openly staring at him as her indecision plagued her mind. She broke out of the trance and took a step back, Tony standing and carefully scooting his way around her and toward the walk in closet.

What was she so scared of? Why couldn’t she just take that plunge?

“Business or casual?” he called from inside the room.

“What?”

“Do you want that smart grey pantsuit that makes your ass look amazing or should I break out the comfy pants and t-shirts for work this morning?”

Pepper shook her head like she didn’t hear Tony right. “I’m sorry, the grey pantsuit that what?”

“Casual it is,” he ignored her comment and exited the closet carrying clothing for them both. “Sorry does only boyfriend Tony get to say things like that?”

She shrugged. “You’ve always been inappropriate so it’s a difficult line to distinguish.”

“All part of my charm,” he winked and this time he was the one that leaned in closer to her. He made a move as if to kiss her lips but seemed to think better of it and turned and placed a kiss on her cheek. He pulled back, cheeks a little pink, unsure what to do.

“You done with the bathroom?” he asked nervously instead. He didn’t wait for a reply before heading into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. 

Well, at least they both seemed to be on the same train of thought. 

Pepper brushed her hand across her cheek once, before getting back to the business at hand and getting ready for a day of work.

* * *

“So what are you thinking doc? Think this could work?” Tony asked impatiently, peering over Helen Cho’s shoulder. 

He was dutifully wearing his tacky navy blue sling and had his good arm folded across his chest over it, tapping his fingers lightly across the material. Helen had already given him a clear bill of health, or as clear as one could have following a fight with a super soldier.

“Your arm is healing nice. No fracture like I suspected, just some heavy bruising. You got lucky. Still having any of that numbness or tingling?” she had asked.

“Not since the day Barnes leveled me.”

All he could do was continue with his sling for the next 3-4 weeks (meaning he’d humor everyone for a few more days, a week if he was feeling really generous), and continue to ice any swelling and take his medicine as needed. The rest of his lacerations and bruising were healing normally. 

Now though he had Helen focused on what he really wanted to hear about and that was whether the prosthetics he’d spent the morning designing would feasibly work with Rhodey’s condition or not. 

After his teasing interlude with Pepper that morning, Rhodey’s prosthetic was all he could think of. It was something that had continually been shifted to the backburner of his mind, but with the man himself hopefully coming back to the compound this week, he wanted to have at the very least a first prototype stamped out and ready to be outfitted. Tony wanted to show that he wasn’t going to let Rhodey down again.

Tony’d hesitated that morning outside his father’s door only briefly as he made his way down to the lab. Working together yesterday had been nice. It reminded him of those few good memories of his childhood of doing much of the same, and aside from some casual debates on the best rock n roll band, they had gotten along perfectly, joined together by oil and car parts. 

This was different than a car or his father’s specialty of weapons though. Howard had done some minor dabbling in the medical field for SI but he had always seemed to be disinterested on the few occasions that Tony had brought up ideas to him while he was home from school. The company was doing fine the way it was and he saw no reason to change.

So, Tony bypassed the door and subsequently asking for help, even if he could have used an extra pair of eyes.

Helen hummed as she looked at the x-rays that Friday had projected in the air, side by side with Tony’s schematics. 

“In theory, yes. The amount of physical therapy that will be required is extensive, though it would be under even the best of circumstances with a spinal injury. All of this is hinging on you getting a working prototype. We’ll need to do a lot of testing and calibrations to get it outfitted for Rhodes’ exact specifications.”

“I’m willing to put in the work, and I know Rhodey will be as well,” he responded immediately with confidence.

“Have you discussed this with him?”

“Not yet. Haven’t had much of an opportunity to.”

“Just make sure it’s something that he wants to do too, Tony.”

Tony frowned. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“This is going to be a difficult recovery no matter what, but these braces have never been tested before. Who knows what the long term or short term effects of this will be.”

“What do you think he wants to be in a chair for the rest of his life? To not be able to cross a room or stand and hug his Mom?” he began defensively, his voice rising a modicum with each word.

“I’m on your side Tony. I want him to be able to be as active as possible too. Just make sure this is a road that he wants to travel as well and not something to allay your guilt. I know you, Tony and you have a big heart. I just want to make sure you’re not tying your own worth to whether this does or doesn’t work. You’re a good friend. What happened to Rhodes wasn’t your fault.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone keeps saying. I appreciate your concern but I wouldn’t force anything on Rhodey if he didn’t want it. I just want to do something good for a change and this...this could help more than just Rhodey if we get it right.”

Helen smiled kindly at him. “You’re a good man, Tony Stark. One day you’ll realize that too.”

* * *

Tony was still in the medical wing with Helen discussing possible alterations to the braces when Happy’s text pinged through. 

_ Spiderbrat is five minutes out. Also, there’s pizza. Kid insisted. _

Tony smiled and only when his stomach rumbled did he finally realize that not only had he skipped breakfast that morning, but the last thing he’d truly eaten had been the omelet over twenty-four hours ago. 

“Good call with the pizza, kid,” he mumbled to himself before making his excuses to Helen and inviting her for some lunch. She declined, wanting to work on some other business so Tony went ahead and made his way to the common area, ready to prepare for the tornado that was Peter Parker.

His mother and Pepper were already seated at the dining table eating their own lunch when Tony wandered in. 

“It lives,” Pepper teased, in between bites of her salad. “Helen give you the all clear?” She pointed her fork at his arm and shot him a look that meant that she would be double checking with the doctor to verify the validity of whatever came out of his mouth, if she didn’t know already. Pepper was a generally all knowing person and that was what made her so dangerously attractive. Tony was a sucker for competence.

“All clear. No fracture or tears like Friday verified the last time I was checked out. Just gotta keep doing what I already have been,” he said patting the sling gently, purposefully leaving out time details. He couldn’t get in trouble for taking the sling off early if he didn’t give the timeframe he was supposed to keep it on.

Tony came around the table and placed a kiss to his mother’s cheek. He turned toward Pepper and though he had stolen a kiss that morning he suddenly felt self conscious in front of his Mom and settled for an awkward pat to her shoulder. Pepper made a face at him but he ignored it as he went to the fridge to grab a water.

“Where’s Howard?” he questioned over his shoulder.

Maria scrunched up her nose. “I thought he was with you.”

“Nope, haven’t seen him all morning.”

“Hmm. I’m not sure then. I thought you guys were hiding away like you did yesterday. Thank you for that, by the way. He didn’t say anything to me, but I know it meant a lot to him.”

Tony said nothing as he opened his bottle of water and took a long drink, stalling for time. He didn’t know how to respond to his mother’s words. He knew that he himself had enjoyed the previous evening tinkering away with Howard but to hear that Howard had genuinely enjoyed it as well? It sent his mind spinning.

Before anymore could be said the audible opening and closing of the front door could be heard followed by a loud gasp and resounding, woah.

“This place is AWESOME!”

Peter’s voice carried throughout the entryway and towards the common room. Tony perked up as the kid came rounding the corner into the room with his backpack slung over one shoulder, wearing jeans and a black shirt that proudly proclaimed “I found this humerus” with the picture of a humerus bone beneath it. Tony snorted a little but covered it with a greeting.

“Parker!”

“Hey, Mr. Stark! This place is so much cooler than I imagined. Not that I spend my time imagining being here but…”

“You disappoint me kid, I thought you came bearing gifts?”

Peter scrunched up his nose. “Gifts? I didn’t know I was supposed to bring a gift. Is it your birthday?”

“The pizza, kid.”

“Oh, duh. Yeah, Happy was right behind me…” he trailed off and turned behind him looking for the grumpy head of security.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” the man muttered as he entered the room with three pizza boxes in his hands and placed them down on the counter. 

Tony opened up the box and immediately stole a slice of pepperoni and Peter did the same, both biting into the slice and letting the cheese stretch across.

“You did good kid,” Tony said, patting his shoulder, after finishing the piece. He wiped his hand on a paper towel before glancing back over at the table and remembering Pepper and his mother. “Oh, hey kid, I have someone I want you to meet.” He wrapped his arms around Peter’s shoulder and steered him towards the table.

Tony planned to introduce Peter to Pepper first, he wasn’t sure why he wanted them to hit it off so much but he craved that acceptance that he was doing something good. However, as he came closer and saw the soft gaze his mother was giving him he knew they wouldn’t get past her so easily.

“First kid, this is a very important woman. This is my…” he paused. He didn’t want to hide the truth from Peter but much like he was keeping the kids identity a secret from everyone, he didn’t want to let this secret loose more than he had to either. “My friend, Maria. She’s a famous concert pianist.”

Not a total lie. Half truths were always easier to swallow.

Maria said nothing of the strange introduction as she stood to greet them. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Peter. You remind me very much of a young man I knew years ago. He has kind eyes, much like your own.”

“Thank you, ma’am. My Aunt May always jokes that I look like Bambi.” He shook hands with her politely and Tony knew just from the look in her eye that Peter was about to be adopted, whether he liked it or not. 

Pepper stood from her seat then and introduced herself, though given Peter’s gobsmacked expression, introductions weren’t particularly necessary.

“Mr. Parker, I hear you’re one of the recipients of our newly implemented Stark Internship,” Pepper said, directing some mirth at Tony, and reaching to shake the boy’s hand.

“Uh. Yes, Ms. Potts I am. Wow, you’re even more intimidating in person,” he stammered out in complete awe.

Pepper just laughed. “I assure you, there’s no reason for you to be intimidated, and please call me Pepper.”

“Of course, Ms. Potts. Erm, Pepper.”

“She gets called Pepper after one request, meanwhile it’s a week later and I still can’t get you to call me anything but Mr. Stark?”

Peter laughed nervously and shrugged.

“Tony has been talking a lot about you. Says you’re really smart and interested in spiders? Oscorp had a whole gene splicing program going on with spiders until they got shut down.”

“Oh, yeah, I heard about that...um. My school went there this year for a field trip.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at Peter questioningly, and though he didn’t return his gaze directly, he gave a minute nod of his head and Tony’s eyes widened. He was curious as to how Peter had gained his powers. He should have known it had come from something as shady as a venture to Oscorp. Norman Osborne was insane. 

“Is that when you became so interested in spiders?”

Peter smiled. “You could say that, Ms. Pepper.”

Happy snorted in the background as he sat eating his own piece of pizza. Pepper gave Happy and then Tony a questioning look which he knew meant it was time to start deflecting to throw her off the trail.

“Well, hey we’d love to stay and chat but we have a lot to work on today so we’re going to hit the lab, right kid?”

“Yes sir! I brought my su-...um science project for you to look over. I think there’s a bug to work out.”

“No worries, let's get going. You guys good here?” he asked pointing toward Maria and Pepper.

“I think we can manage. Just make sure to not blow anything up. And please take it easy,” Pepper said, indicating Tony’s arm.

“Yes, dear,” came the tired reply. “Okay, Parker grab the pizzas.”

Peter snatched up the two pizzas that hadn’t been eaten out of yet. He left the top for Happy and anyone else that wanted some. As they got on the elevator and Peter started talking about how cool he thought Tony’s life was, surrounded by so many amazing people and being able to live in this place, Tony’s phone buzzed in his pocket. It was a text from Pepper.

_ He seems like a great kid. You did good, Tony. _

He smiled softly at the phone and texted her back.

_ Thanks, Pep. _

“So, anyways I really did bring the suit. There’s something a little wonky with one of the eyes. It keeps getting really big and then really small, I think something shorted out when we took down that giant guy at the airport and I got hit,” Peter continued talking as the door opened into the lab. 

“Hm. Yeah sounds like some of the wiring got crossed or something, shouldn’t be too hard of a fix.”

They entered the lab and much like when he entered the building, Peter looked around in awe, his eyes lighting up brighter than a christmas tree as he observed all the tech surrounding them. 

“Not bad, huh kid? Beats your chemistry lab or wherever the hell you were making that webbing in your school.”

“No kidding,” Peter murmured, still taking everything in. “Mr. Stark, who's that?”

Tony barely got a chance to react before Howard came up beside him, scaring the absolute shit out of him. 

“Hey, there you are. I was wondering when you’d head down here. I went ahead and started putting together the engine block but I saved the good stuff for last,” the man said, so nonchalantly, not seeming to really notice Peter at all, or Tony’s discomfort at his sudden appearance.

“Damn it, heart condition. I swear I’m going to put a bell on you, you’re worse than Natasha,” Tony ranted trying to reign in his heart rate as Peter’s eyes shifted back and forth between the two men. “How the hell did you even get in here? This place is supposed to be locked down when I’m not here.”

“Friday,” Howard said, narrowing his eyes. “She said after yesterday I was allowed access to work.”

“While I’m here Friday!” Tony amended, looking towards the ceiling in annoyance. She knew better than that. “How long have you been down here lurking around?”

“Since this morning. Why is this not okay? I’m not a child Tony.”

“I know that but there’s a lot of shit down here that you don’t have the first idea about, so I’m a little uncomfortable letting you wander down here unattended.”

Tony didn’t know why he was so angry suddenly. He thought it was partly because of the reasons he was giving but ever since Ultron his anxiety had worsened and thus his ability to confidently deal with things like an unauthorized visitor lurking around the lab. Howard really could have hurt himself. There were half formed gauntlets and unfinished widow bite upgrades laying around from before, all kinds of things that could cause a lot of damage if someone didn’t know what they were doing with them.

For a moment Tony had a flash of a similar memory when he was a child and snuck into Howard’s lab while the man was away. He ended up nearly setting the entire place on fire when he mixed the wrong type of chemicals together. If it hadn’t been for Jarvis, Tony would have wound up with worse than some singed arm hair. Howard had found out of course because it wasn’t exactly something that Jarvis could lie to him about and that was the last time Tony saw the inside of a real lab until MIT.

Now he understood his father’s visceral reaction, nearly being on the other side of things. He didn’t doubt Howard’s abilities but there were just so many things that he didn’t know about yet and he’d be damned if something awful happened to him now when Tony had just got him back.

“Who's the kid?” Howard asked, finally seeming to notice the boy, still rooted to the spot, the boxes of pizza held tightly in his grasp. 

“Peter Parker, sir,” he immediately answered. “You’re Howard Stark!”

Howard and Tony’s eyes both widened as they turned to look at each other, not expecting the kid to have any clue towards his identity. 

“Uhhh, no, kid. He’s actually a Howard Stark impersonator. I thought it’d be a funny joke,” Tony said weakly and as expected Peter completely disregarded his words and stepped closer.

“I did a huge presentation on you last year for school. I’m a HUGE fan of your work, not so much the weapons, but the technology that you pioneered from them. Unprecedented, except of course by Mr. Stark here,” Peter stopped for a moment and then whipped back towards Tony. “Does that mean that Maria is really Maria Stark? She’d have to be! You said she’s a concert pianist and that’s what everything I’ve ever read about her has said too!”

Well, so much for that cover. Tony had severely underestimated the kid’s interest in the Stark name, thinking it began and ended with Tony himself, or at the very least, Tony and the company. Howard no longer seemed concerned,merely watching the ranting boy with something akin to interest as he continued to discuss all the technological advances that had been made possible through his work.

Peter’s stream of thought seemed to slow the more he talked, his face falling back into one of confusion as he finally asked the million dollar question. 

“Wait...aren’t you guys supposed to be dead?”

“Look kid, it’s a funny story and I'm sure Howard would love to tell you all about it, but he was just leaving,” Tony said through gritted teeth.

“I was?” Howard questioned back, annoyed.

“Yep,” Tony responded, popping the p for full effect.

“Are you sure Mr. Stark? Maybe he could help us?” Peter asked, not sensing the tension that had slowly been building.

“I’d love to help. It’s been awhile since I’ve had some good tech to work on,” Howard said, turning back to Tony.

“Out of the question.You need to go. Now.”

Howard stared at Tony for a long time. What Tony had first mistaken for anger or a challenge had morphed away into hurt. But that couldn’t be right. Nothing could penetrate Howard Stark’s cold shell enough to hurt him. That wasn’t really true though was it? Their discussion a couple nights ago about Obadiah had seemingly disproved that theory.

Finally, Howard sighed and shook his head. “Perhaps, a rain check kid?” He didn’t wait for a response as he brushed by Tony and headed towards the exit. He lingered for just a moment at one of the tables but Tony had already turned away from him, feeling a little bad for his harshness. It wasn’t like the man could have really stayed though. They were going to work on the spider suit. Maybe another night, another time. Tony didn’t like the disorienting feeling of being caught off guard and that was exactly what happened when Howard had made himself known.

Tony waited for the tell tale sounds of the elevator doors closing before he turned back to Peter, eyes still wide, wondering if he had done something wrong. Tony mustered a grin to try and ease the tension. It was funny. The kid did kinda look like Bambi in a funny deer in the headlights kind of way. 

“Look Peter, we need to talk about this real quick.”

“Okay,” he said, shaking his head and depositing the pizza on the table beside him. “I’m ready.”

“You’re right. That is Howard Stark, and that was my mother you met earlier as well, but listen. This isn’t exactly common knowledge. The same way that you don’t want anyone knowing you’re Spiderman, I don’t want anyone knowing about them. If it got out that they were alive...especially to someone like Secretary Ross....”

“They’d be in danger,” Peter finished solemnly. Tony had briefed the kid a little on the situation when he took him to Germany, but everyone knew about Secretary Ross and how out of control he’d gone back in the day trying to catch the Hulk. How he was okay with Bruce being experimented on and who knows what else. To a fellow enhanced person like Peter, it made his actions all the more barbaric, knowing that it could have been him being hunted like a dog. 

“It’s okay, Mr. Stark. You can count on me. I won’t tell anyone.”

Tony could tell that he meant every word of what he said, his face set in complete seriousness. 

Tony meant it from the bottom of his heart when he said, “Thanks, Pete.” They shared a meaningful look before Tony unclipped his sling and gently stretched his arm out. “While we’re on the subject of keeping secrets, under no circumstances mention that I’m circumventing Doctor’s orders.”

Peter smiled and grabbed some pizza. “Only if you tell me what the the heck really happened after you left the airport. Clearly, I’ve missed a few things.”

“You drive a hard bargain kid,” Tony sighed and began recounting his tale.

* * *

In the elevator Howard was a mess of emotions. This wasn’t how he expected the day to go at all. He thought that he had finally begun to make some real progress with Tony yesterday, but it seemed like it was just a case of one step forward and two steps back.

He had waited out around the elevator that morning when he’d got up, hoping to spend some more time working on the car with Tony, when Friday helpfully allowed him access, stating that Tony had given his permission for Howard to be in the lab for car purposes only. So, he’d gone downstairs and got lost in the project. He figured Tony would turn up eventually but he hadn’t anticipated the kid.

That must have been the boy he’d had to pick up from the airport, that Howard had briefly mistaken for his grandson. He seemed like a good kid and he definitely seemed to know his shit as he rattled back all manner of technical babble when he realized who he was dealing with. 

It had been nice to be recognized and praised. Even before Hydra he had always gotten a lot of flack from the media for his weapons, so it was a good change of pace to be appreciated. 

The sting of betrayal ran deep with the way Tony had treated him, like he was a child, in front of an actual child. He didn’t understand how it made sense for the kid to be allowed access to the sanctuary while he was kicked to the curb. 

If Howard couldn’t tinker in the lab with Tony, then he would just have to occupy his time another way. He opened his fist and revealed the harmless looking pair of glasses in his hand. BARF, Tony had called it. He’d swiped it off the table on his way out of the lab in a brief moment of petulance. If Tony was going to treat him like a child then he’d act like one. 

He tried not to feel too guilty about it.

Besides...

What harm could come from a pair of glasses?  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Howard. What are we going to do with you, sir?


	14. The Other Green Eyed Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello, hello!
> 
> I hope everyone is doing okay during these last crazy weeks. Apologies for not posting a chapter last Monday! It has been chaos in the Bosquez household. Schools have been closed so when I get off work I've been helping homeschool my oldest kids who are 6 and 7 and then taking care of the baby and the house and everything in between. Whew. I needed a break. But I'm back now!
> 
> I really hope that you guys enjoy this chapter and if you left a comment last chapter, just tha k you so very much from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments and thanks for all the kudos. I hope you're all safe and practicing your social distancing! The Stark boys are currently working through their emotional distancing. Lol

Howard couldn't sleep. He had never slept very well. There was always something to do or something to create. Parties to attend, drinks to be had. This idle silence and the inability to do anything other than sit and wait was chipping away at his very being. He tossed and turned and stared at Maria’s peaceful face in the moonlight, taking stock of every line and every mark, before finally giving up the fight and getting up, the clock on the side table indicating it was 3:34am. 

He really wished he had a robe and a pair of slippers to cover up with, another layer to add to his armor. He’d have to see about getting Friday to order him some. As it was he wandered out into the hall, socks softly padding against the ceramic tiled floors. 

It had been three days since the incident in Tony’s lab with Peter and the burning humiliation of being kicked out like a child. Peter had been invited back to the compound every day since, not that Howard ever saw much of him, or Tony for that matter. The duo wholed themselves up in the lab working on god only knows what. Howard wasn’t privileged enough for that kind of information. 

He’d be lying if he said it didn’t sting. 

There was also the matter of the BARF glasses that he had swiped on the way out of the lab. He hadn’t expected to feel as guilty over them as he did but after that brief moment of victory in the elevator he had put them in a drawer in the bedroom and not touched them again. Howard didn’t even know what they did and any discreet internet searching he had done hadn’t turned up much more than an MIT event recently where they had been demonstrated for the first time. But there were NDA’s signed about the technology and the articles focused more on something called the September Foundation and the loads of money that had been thrown at the student inventors. 

Another more rational part of Howard’s mind told him he hadn’t tested out the glasses because then that would be proving a small point as to why Tony threw him out of the lab in the first place. He was a danger to this time’s technology supposedly, Howard always considered himself a fast learner and he was learning with each new day. He didn’t know what the glasses were for, what technology could possibly be hidden behind the strange frames and tinted eyewear that he often saw Tony wear in pictures on the internet.

So, the glasses sat gathering dust. For now. 

Howard tried not to think about it as he made his way down the hallway, content to wander about to distract his mind. Not for the first time his attention turned to how empty the compound seemed to be. How lonely. In a strange way he was reminded of the large and sometimes obtrusive mansion back in Long Beach that Tony had been raised in and he could begin to see the similarities. Great. He didn’t want to think about that for too long either. The greatest hits of his failures played out in his mind every night anyways. 

Howard only paused briefly as he found himself staring at the stairwell he knew led to his son’s suite. He couldn’t see any signs of light or movement in that direction though so he continued onwards, leaving the wing of living quarters behind. 

The common room was predictably empty at this late hour, the moonlight shone through the wall of windows casting an eerie glow before the lights came on. He jumped minutely, forgetting the helpful AI controlled all of the compound's functions. He glanced at the wet bar, a jolt of desire to plant his ass and drink the night away like so many in the past but now was not the time nor place. 

Not wanting to linger he continued further on, lights shuffling on and off as he got lost in the twists and turns of the building. Occasionally he would peek into rooms as he went, finding offices and training rooms. 

Finally he found himself back at the entrance that led down to Tony’s lab. He wondered if he’d be able to get into the lab to work on the car. His hands itched at his sides to be of some use again and it seemed cruel to have that slight return to normalcy ripped away so quickly. Howard glanced around the corridor like he was waiting for Tony to jump out at him and quickly reached out, pressing his palm to the panel as he had done previously. The panel instantly blinked a bright red and beeped a loud warning signal and Howard jumped back several feet.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark but you do not have access to this area without the Bosses permission,” Friday chirped out with her lilting irish accent filling the room; from where Howard had no idea so he settled for turning his gaze to the middle of the ceiling.

“I just want to work on the car, Friday. I can’t sleep...” he admitted, always feeling a little foolish to be talking to thin air. 

“I’m sorry, sir. Bosses orders cannot be overridden unless you have the proper override codes. Or if you’d like I can let Boss know you’d like to gain access,” she helpfully supplied.

Howard furrowed his brow. “He’s down there now?”

“Yes Mr. Stark.”

Well, he supposes they were right about the apple not falling far from the tree. For a moment he is tempted to have the AI contact Tony, to confront him about their disagreement and the way he continued to blow him off, but he knew from experience the likelihood of messing up the fraying relationship further was too great. 

“No, thank you, Friday. I don’t think that will be necessary at this time. He’s okay?” Howard ventures instead.

Friday’s hesitation is only slight. “Boss will be fine. He is working.”

Howard nods his head and steps away from the elevator and the panel, casting only the slightest backward glance as he continues on. 

He doesn’t know how he ends up where he does, as he enters the circular atrium, but as the lights come up on the room he finds himself overwhelmed. Nearly every inch of wallspace is covered by children’s drawings and art. Pictures of Iron Man, Captain America. The rest of the Avenger team that he only knows from the internet searches he ran previously. 

Interspaced with the art is fanmail, letters hastily written in childish scrawl. Howard stops to examine several, mostly asking questions that only kids can come up with, or thanking The Avengers for saving their city or family or inspiring them in some way or another.

Still more wall space is dedicated to actual photos of the team visiting sick kids in the hospital. Signing autographs at events. In one Tony stands in the middle of maybe twenty or more kids all in Iron Man costumes posing with their hand out. They all look so happy. Tony most of all. 

This room is nice. Standing here surrounded by proof of the people affected by his son’s good deeds and the team’s is inspiring and comforting. He hadn’t seen anything like it before except maybe to a smaller extent during Cap’s USO days. It certainly wasn’t something that Howard himself had ever dealt with. He had taken life away from others. His son gave it back. 

“Friday told me you were lurking around the compound like a vampire again,” Tony spoke as he entered the room, startling Howard from his thoughts. 

Howard turned to watch as the younger man entered the room, injured arm in it’s sling and the other hand shoved into the pocket of his worn jeans. He definitely looked like he had been working on a project, smudges of grease or something similar on his forearms. 

Tony approached him slowly, cautiously, as if unsure if his company was wanted but he didn’t let that stop him, it was his building afterall, and planted himself in front of Howard. He glanced curiously between him and the picture he had been staring at but Howard just offered a flippant wave. He wasn’t sure how it was possible that at all other times of the day he repelled Tony from him but any time he didn’t want to be around him the man appeared like magic from thin air.

"I'm fine," he assured as he sat down on a bench beneath the wall of photos. "Couldn't sleep."

"So, you decided to go on a self guided tour?"

"I did."

"And?"

"The building is very impressive."

Tony sensed the unspoken word. "But?"

Howard smirked. "But," he dragged out the word, shifting on the bench to make room for Tony, "It's empty."

"It's not meant to be empty. You've kinda reached the Avengers on a rebuilding year," he remarked and easily slid onto the bench, keeping a margin of space between them. "You know how it is. We have some pretty good prospects in the wings though." He thought then of Peter and couldn't help but think how the boy from Queens was going to be the best of them someday.

Howard said nothing and Tony lapsed into silence as well. 

“What is this room?” Howard finally questioned.

“A little reminder of why we do what we do every day, I suppose.”

Howard’s eyes swept across the room again, lingering on the pictures filling every available space of the room. He wasn’t quite sure how to categorize the emotions he felt as he took in the living proof of the way Tony had helped change lives. Respect and maybe awe twirled into one, with a dash of pride. 

Had he ever told Tony that he was proud of him before, he wondered? Maybe that was what helped continue to tear at this disconnect between them. Why they could get along so well one moment and then the next be like oil and water. Howard had talked a good game about making amends and what had he really done so far since he’d been back? Pressure Tony into details about traumatic events? Steal his tech? Maybe he did deserve to be locked out. 

“You’ve...done good, son,” he forced the words out of his throat. No matter how true the feelings were he still couldn’t express them to save his damn life.

Tony looked at him with a little surprise but Howard just shrugged a single shoulder and turned away, heat burning his cheeks as Tony continued to just stare. 

“What? It’s the truth, don’t look so shocked.”

Tony looked away finally, turning to look at his sling and picking some imaginary lint away from it. Jesus, they both were experts at avoidant behavior. One kind word sent them reeling. It almost pulled a laugh from Howard’s throat until he thought how sad it really was.

“Listen, about the other day…” Tony began, eyes still averted. “I could have handled that better. This last week especially has just been a lot and there’s not really a manual to handle this situation, though maybe there should be between Cap and Barnes and you guys. Anyways, my friend, Rhodey will be coming to stay here…”

The name sounded familiar to Howard and it took a moment for the name to slot into place with a face. Tony’s MIT friend. The air force cadet. He had met the young man in passing, aside from stories Maria would relay to him before bed each night of Tony and his friend’s exploits he hadn’t paid much attention. 

“He got hurt, real bad but I’ve been working on some prosthetics for him and my eyes are getting a little bleary. I could use some help finalizing these updated specs so they’ll be ready for him.”

Just like that. Another olive branch. Still Howard hesitated.

“I don’t know. You sure I won’t blow anything up?” he joked.

Tony snorted. “Maybe I could give you a crash course in modern Stark tech 101 at the same time. I...I know what it’s like to have too much time on your hands and not be able to work. It sucks, so come on.”

He popped up from the bench faster than he should have with one arm, as if he didn’t immediately get the ball rolling he might take back the invitation. Not wanting to tempt him, Howard stood and followed his son, away from the room of children’s art and pictures and letters and back to the sterile, sleek hallways. 

“This isn’t exactly proper lab attire,” Tony joked, thumbing at Howard’s pajamas.

Howard glanced over himself. “I’ve invented in worse. Just ask Jarvis.”

Tony’s body tensed beside him and Howard cursed his stupidity. As the days went by without mention it became increasingly clear that Jarvis was no longer among the living. Sometimes it was still difficult to remember that while mentally it had only been a month or so since he had last seen his oldest friend, in reality several decades separated them. 

“I’m sorry…” Howard said as they entered the elevator together. “Jarvis...he’s?”

Tony nodded lightly. “Yeah. Ana too.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated for lack of more meaningful words. 

Tony said no more but as soon as the doors opened to the lab he was a flurry of activity and streaming thoughts, desperate to change the subject to anything else. 

“Let’s get to work,” Tony said and pulled up a screen and began to explain to Howard what they were doing. 

They worked through the early morning hours. 

They didn’t speak of Jarvis again. 

* * *

“Are your eyes closed?”

“They are,” Maria responded, a hint of humor behind her words. 

Up until this kidnapping moment, Maria had been spending some time that evening with Pepper, something she found herself doing more often. The woman was smart, no nonsense and yet endlessly patient and kind. Everything that she could have ever hoped for in a partner for her only son. Spending time with Pepper meant watching movies or being caught up on SI’s current charities, The Maria Stark Foundation being a flattering yet odd juxtaposition to come to grips with, a foundation established after her death to celebrate her life. 

On this particular evening though, Anthony had stolen into the room vibrating with manic energy. She hadn’t seen much of him the last few days, his time taken up in the lab with Peter, and lord don’t get her started on that boy. He reminded her so much of how Tony used to be only brighter somehow. Unburdened perhaps was a better word. And he followed her son around and clung to his every word like it was gospel. It was sweet.

She rolled her eyes good naturedly when Anthony and Pepper had danced around each other for a few minutes, trading quips and teases before he had announced that he had something to show her and pulled her along down the long winding hallways of the compound. 

Maria still hadn’t been through the entire place so it was disorienting as she tried to take it all in and listen to her son’s chatter beside her before being firmly planted in front of the door she currently stood before and made to close her eyes. 

“Alright,” Tony said beside her and she listened as the door was opened. “Okay, you can open them.”

She wasn’t sure what she expected but it certainly hadn’t been a beautiful white Grotrian Concert Royal Piano. She couldn’t hold back the gasp as she rushed towards the piano, her son laughing beside her. 

“Do you like it?”

“Anthony…” she was at a loss for words. It had been so long since she had been near a piano and her fingers reflexively reached out for the keys. It wasn’t the same as the one she had years ago, this was new, but it was beautiful. “Is this for me?” she asked, sliding down onto the stool.

“It is now. I had saved your old piano but…” he sat down gently beside her. “It kind of got..waterlogged in an accident with my west coast home. So, I had to replace it. I thought this might be a nice place for you to escape too. I know life has been a bit chaotic and I’m trying to focus on a thousand problems at once...I want to make sure you’re taken care of too.”

There was the boy that she saw in Peter. Tentative. Sweet. Kind. If she closed her eyes she could see that young man perfectly, hair a little floppier, scars and age lines faded, the stress and worries washed away. She longed for those days.

“Thank you,” she said with a genuine tone and brought her hand to his cheek before pressing in for a hug that he returned easily. She held onto him a few moments longer than were strictly needed, just listening to his heartbeat beneath her ear but she had twenty-five years of hugs to make up for.

“This room is all yours. I figured I gave Howard some projects to keep busy with. I wanted to make sure you had a place to retreat to when one of us inevitably drives you nuts.”

“I appreciate it.” Maria finally pulled away with a smile and an idea crossed her mind. “You still remember how to play?”

He laughed. “Oh, man. Sort of? It may have been awhile since I’ve done this sober.”

Maria filed that away under questions to ask later but she didn’t want to bring down the mood as she made more room for him on the bench and positioned her fingers. “You know the song I’m talking about?” There was a glimmer in her eye and she knew it. It was true that she had taught Tony to play from a young age, and though he hadn’t gotten the same release from music that she had, there was one song that they had always loved to play together.

“Do you want to lead and I’ll do melody?”

“Of course.”

Maria positioned her fingers across the keys and listened to Anthony mumble under his breath about being rusty but taking his position as well. He sighed and looked at her and nodded when he was ready and she felt a nervous anticipation come over her. 

As the opening keys to “Heart and Soul” flowed from her hands and resounded beautifully throughout the room, (perfect acoustics really, with a view that she was just noticing over the lake to boot), for the first time since her return she felt at ease. This was normal. This was how life used to be. It wasn’t difficult and confusing. There wasn’t new technology to learn or overwhelming information to be shared. It was just her and her son and the piano.

Anthony came in with the melody right on time and grinned at her. Despite his hemming and hawing on being rusty his fingers flowed over the keys with the same ease as her own. They started out at a slow and steady pace and the more comfortable they grew the faster the tempo ebbed and flowed between them until they were both openly laughing and finally finishing with a flourish.

“I’d say you’ve kept up with your playing rather well.”

He smiled at her brightly, a little pink tinging his cheeks from the compliment and laughter. Then he reached forward and clasped his hands in hers unexpectedly and caught her gaze with his, his face turning completely serious for a moment and she wondered if something was wrong.

“I don’t know if I have really said this before since you’ve been back, but...I have really, really missed you. I’m so happy you’re here, Mom.”

He said it with such sweetness and sincerity that she couldn’t do anything more than hug him close to her again and press a kiss to his temple.

“I’m happy to be here too, darling.”

* * *

“Hey, Mr. Stark?”

“Yes?” came two sets of replies in the workshop.

Tony sent Howard a look from where he stood working on the car.

“Reflex,” he shrugged and idly began working again.

“We’ve really gotta work on this whole name thing, Pete. I’m Tony. That’s Howard. Mr. Stark was _his_ father. What have we got here?” Tony asked, coming up behind the kids shoulder to see what he needed.

It had been almost two weeks since he had invited Howard back into the workshop and showed him all of the new equipment. He still wasn’t necessarily comfortable with Howard working on his own but they had begun to make strides by keeping conversation light and focusing on finishing the leg braces for Rhodey who was finally due to return to the Compound after clearance from all the doctors. From there he started joining Peter and Tony when the kid was over, though usually relegating himself to an observer, watching Tony and Peter work while he idly worked on the roadster.

Everyone was working on their own projects that evening however, Howard with the car, Tony with last minute upgrades for the braces, and Peter was tweaking his web formula. Of course Howard didn’t know the real reason behind Peter’s project. It was covered up easily enough on the pretext of summer homework, Peter went to a prestigious science and technology school that even Howard had heard of and remembered, so a project like recreating the strength of a spider’s webbing wasn’t too difficult to swallow, with the added bonus that Peter could still work on his Spiderman needs.

“Oh, yeah, sorry Mr. Stark,” Peter turned back to the smoking, goopy glob of what was supposed to be his new and improved web formula but at the moment was an absolute disaster. 

Tony sighed good naturedly at the formal address twenty seconds after correcting Peter but turned his complete attention to the smoking web base.

“I honestly don’t know what happened, I barely tweaked the original formula, I just wanted to make it thinner without losing durability and it all went wrong.”

Howard perked his ear up in interest, turning to hear the conversation more completely while still working on his own project.

“Let me see what I can do,” Tony said and started the formula over, giving the other mush to DUM-E to throw out.

Twenty minutes went by as Tony worked and Peter eagerly watched over his shoulder and contributed his own thoughts and ideas. When the formula was complete though it was apparent that the mixture was still wrong, “too soupy” in Peter’s words.

“What the hell,” Tony mumbled. 

He had made plenty of variations of Peter’s web formula before. The kid didn’t know it yet due to the training wheels protocol but Tony had installed all manner of special upgrades to the types of webs the suit could shoot, but for some reason he couldn’t figure this one out. He was too tired and too weary preparing for Rhodey. He and Howard had been working nonstop on the prosthetics, including beta testing on their own selves and everything was just about right. 

Not to mention he’d received word from T’Challa that their appeal to the United Nations to have the imprisoned Avengers released from the RAFT had been put into motion and they would have a hearing coming up where they could finally expose Ross for what he was.

His mind was on a thousand problems at once and today it just couldn’t handle one thousand and one problems. 

“I can take a look,” Howard spoke, cleaning the grease from his hands with a rag as he moved toward them. 

Tony gave him a skeptical glance but stepped to the side and let the man look over Peter’s formula. All signs of the quiet observer of before were gone as Howard asked Peter questions about what he had already tried and the amounts of each substance and the intended goal. 

“Oh, I see. Try this.”

To Tony’s greatest surprise Howard didn’t just immediately start dictating orders or doing everything himself in silence. Instead he stepped back and told Peter what step to take and why they were doing it, gently correcting him before he made a mistake. Peter soaked up the attention and the instruction with an intent focus had yet to see. 

“Like this, Howard?” Peter asked, turning back to the older man to make sure that he had the correct amount of liquid in the glass. 

“That’s good, Parker,” he said and grasped the boy's shoulder for a moment before telling him the next step.

Tony was positively floored. Never in his life had he ever seen Howard so calm and attentive. The extremely rare occasion that they had worked side by side on a project his father had been impatient and preferred to correct any mistakes himself without even breathing a word of what was done wrong or not up to his personal specifications. 

Yet here he stood, praising Peter, giving out tips and advice as they completed the new formula like this was just something that he did all the time. 

Long buried emotions began to stir within Tony as Peter began to animatedly talk to Howard about how he had come up with the original idea for the web fluid (minus Spiderman) and Howard seemed genuinely intrigued, nodding his head along at appropriate moments and peppering the conversation with his own comments. 

Tony’s face twitched and he had to turn away from them both, his brows knitting together and a lump in his throat. He took a deep breath and returned to his work, or the illusion of such, his attention constantly being redirected towards the mentee that had been stolen out from under him. 

Okay, maybe he was getting a little dramatic. 

But it didn’t end there.

Peter asked Howard a question about the roadster and suddenly Howard was handing him wrenches and showing him under the hood and the two were just getting on like a house on fire weren’t they? 

Tony bit the inside of his lip and refocused his attention once more barely realizing the death grip he had on his own tools. 

It was fine. Really. Better than fine even, it was great. 

He was happy that Peter had been accepted so easily by Pepper and his family. Peter was a great kid and after hearing about the loss of his own parents when he had been a child and more recently the loss of his Uncle Ben, back when he was telling the kid why his parents had to be kept secret, the idea that he was now surrounded by a growing support network was a good thing. He was sure that Rhodey would end up adopting the kid into their little family when he arrived as well. 

But the feeling still gnawed away deep in the pit of his stomach and only grew each time Howard patted Peter on the back or gently corrected him, explaining the differences between certain tools.

Tony didn’t feel this way when his mom stole Peter away with quick cooking tips whenever they caught her making some italian dish (she’d really become quite the cooking addict now that all of her attention could be focused on one thing at a time), and he never minded when Pepper talked to Peter about colleges and grades and career dreams.

So what was different now?

Howard he supposed. 

It was like he had done a complete 180. Where he was a quiet observer before he was now engaging and charming like the Howard Stark of old.

“Tony, do you want to show the kid how to make this beauty faster?”

Peter turned towards Tony expectantly and Howard seemed earnest enough but all Tony could think of was who was this grinning pod person and what did they do to the real Howard Stark? The one that was cold and clinical who didn’t hand out pats and praises like they were candy on Halloween?

Something inside of Tony broke. 

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”

Peter’s eyes grew wide as saucers, not that he hadn’t heard Tony curse before, but more for the blatant animosity in his tone. He glanced over at Howard and the older man seemed just as confused. 

“What’s your problem?” Howard asked, infuriatingly calm even if his body had become more tense.

“What’s _my_ problem?” Tony parroted back. He threw the tool in his hand down with a heavy metallic clank. “Unbelievable.”

Without another word Tony turned on his heel and stormed out of the lab and to the elevator. He wasn’t sure if anyone was going to follow him out and at the moment he didn’t care. He just wanted to get out, to get away. 

A slight twinge of remorse went through Tony for startling Peter but his anger was overriding all over senses. He’d make it up to him later, buy the kid a car or something. Was he even old enough to drive? It didn’t matter.

As soon as the elevator doors opened he bolted out of the enclosure, not slowing down for a moment even when he realized that he was going to have to get by Pepper and his mother as they stood in the kitchen drinking wine and talking while dinner cooked in the background ( _and shit was his Mom making carbonara? Steady Stark!_ ). 

“Hey, there you are. Dinner will be ready in a few…” Pepper cut herself off once she got a read of his face and body language. “Tony what happened?”

“Ask Howard,” he said bitterly without slowing at all as he pressed past them.

Pepper and Maria both looked to the other in concern but didn’t make a move to stop him. He just needed to cool down. Maybe go take a shower, lay down. Take the suit out for a flight. Whatever would make this gnawing in the pit of his stomach go away. 

* * *

Pepper didn’t have the slightest clue what the hell was going on. Tony was busting through the kitchen like a bat out of hell when he was supposed to be in the workshop with Peter and his father and it had Pepper instantly filtering through all the worst case scenarios that could come from the two Stark’s butting heads. She had to admit that she was fairly surprised they hadn’t come to blows sooner, over what it didn’t matter, having two strong willed personalities in the same room together for any length of time and you were almost guaranteed to clash eventually.

Not two minutes later did the elder Stark and Peter come bounding through as well. Peter followed behind Howard several paces looking confused and concerned but Howard carried himself with the same tinge of anger that Tony had passed through with.

“Did you see which way Tony went?” Howard asked the women tiredly.

Pepper wanted to be diplomatic in her approach, knowing how much Tony could push people to the edge but she felt her protective instincts welling up instead.

“What the hell happened?” Pepper responded instead of answering the question.

Howard seemed startled by her tone as well and looked to Maria for help but she just crossed her arms and gave him a disapproving look.

“Don’t I even get a trial first before I’m found guilty?” Howard quipped.

“It depends,” Maria answered. “Anthony just came tearing through here and when we asked what happened he said to ask you. What did you do Howard?”

“Nothing!” Upon seeing Maria’s look of disbelief he repeated himself again firmer and calmer. “Nothing, I swear.”

“Excuse me Mrs. Stark and Ms. Pepper but he is telling the truth,” Peter said stepping up beside Howard. 

Pepper sighed and grabbed the red wine bottle, refilling hers and Maria’s glasses. “Okay, Peter. Start from the top and don’t leave out any details.”

“Okay, so we were all just working when I asked Mr. Stark for help with my project. He tried but whatever he did didn’t work either. So, Mr. Howard helped me and together we figured it out. After that I don’t know what went wrong. We were just talking and he showed me the car he and Mr. Stark was working on and when we asked if he wanted to help us with it his rage just broke.” Peter recounted with barely a breath to spare between words.

“Oh, shit,” Pepper whispered and took a long drink of her wine.

Everything made sense now. Howard had swooped in unintentionally and stolen Tony’s thunder in a way. The past few weeks he had been working with Peter had been some of the happiest that she had seen him. The boy practically worshipped the ground that he walked on and while Tony was used to that in a way, it was different with Peter, had been different from the start. Having to share that unyielding attention now with Howard all of a sudden, especially after the man helped Peter where Tony could not...it was simple.

Tony was jealous. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Peter questioned.

“No, Peter, it’s not you. Look, I'll go and talk to Tony, I think I know what’s going on. You got this?” Pepper asked Maria regarding the dinner and the men.

“Of course, go ahead.”

“I’m coming too,” Howard said, moving forward to follow her.

“No, Howard I’m sorry. I better go this alone for now. Sorry if I was rude before though.”

“I can’t just sit here right now, either.”

“It’s honestly for the best. I promise neither of you did anything wrong, Tony just has some...quirks he needs to get over. I’ll have him come find you when we’re done.”

Maria grasped Howard’s arm gently. “Why don’t you go get cleaned up for dinner,” she motioned to the grease on his arms and hands. 

Howard exhaled deeply and lowered his head in resignation. “Yeah, sure. That’s fine.” He reached around Maria and stole a sip from her wine glass even as she playfully batted him away. He wiped a drop from his mustache before exiting the room.

“Now you understand what my daily life with these boys was like,” Maria joked.

“I don’t envy you that fun experience,” Pepper grinned. “Wish me luck?”

Maria pushed Pepper’s glass and the wine bottle towards her. “You’ll need more than luck.”

Pepper laughed knowing she was probably right. She turned to make her own way to the suite where she knew Tony had retreated to, smiling as she heard Maria exclaim to Peter, “So, tell me Peter. Have you ever made carbonara before?”

* * *

Howard walked into his bedroom and closed the door firmly and kicked off his shoes, not caring where they landed. 

Here they go again, he couldn’t help but think. Everything had been going completely fine lately and yet he had somehow managed to screw it all up again. He wasn’t even sure what he had done. He was sure to treat Peter with kindness and respect, he knew how much the kid seemed to mean to his son, having carefully watched them together as they worked. All he had done was lend a helping hand and then the next minute Tony was biting his head off. 

Howard was tired of this exhausting back and forth already. They’d done it for years. 

Despite his desire and need for a shower he collapsed his body across the middle of the bed and stared up at the white ceiling in exhaustion. What did he have to do to prove to Tony that he was trying to do better, to be better? But then again he still wasn’t doing his best was he?

His eyes wandered the room and across the way to his nightstand where he was reminded of the one secret he was still keeping from Tony. He still had those glasses. Howard hadn’t touched them since that day he was kicked out of the lab, when Tony had opened up and brought him back into the fold he no longer felt that initial spite that led him to grab them. 

Now he looked to the drawer with curiosity, needing something to take his mind off of his failings. But he shouldn’t...he should have already returned them to the lab but he never had a good enough opportunity. He didn’t know what kind of technology this was and Tony hadn’t been lying when he said he had a lot of potentially dangerous tech around to anyone unfamiliar with it. 

Still. 

Howard sat up and turned towards the stand, reaching out and gently opening the drawer. There exactly where he left them were the seemingly innocuous glasses. Carefully he lifted them, unfolding the temple of the glasses and looked through the clear frames without actually putting them on. They didn’t seem any different than normal.

Feeling more at ease he closed his eyes and slowly slid them on his face. When they were on he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, expecting something to activate and happen.

But nothing did. 

Looking through the frames was like looking through a window. Nothing was distorted or changed, there were no effects.

“Well,” he mumbled. “That was anticlimactic.”

Whatever this technology was Tony must have put some kind of safety or lock on to prevent unauthorized usage. Or hell, maybe he had just lied about whatever it was as a joke, to test how gullible Howard could be. It wouldn’t be the first time he tried but it was the first time Howard actually fell for it. He wouldn’t let Tony know that though. He’d make sure to put the glasses back in their place the next time he was in the lab and not give Tony the satisfaction of a laugh.

He had just reached up to remove the glasses when the side of his hand brushed up against what felt like a button.

Howard paused as he felt the button release and for a moment nothing seemed to happen again.

Then the room went white.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Howard. What have you done my friend? 
> 
> To stay up to date on the latest happenings of this story and any delays in posting or if you want to chat about it you can find me on tumblr under 12-16-91-stark (on mobile so idk how to link) or follow my main page theherothechampiontheinquisitor
> 
> Til next week my friends!


	15. The Replica

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are another early/late? Tuesday morning. I tried for Monday guys, I apologize. lol So, first off i hope everyone is continuing to stay safe and healthy. I love you all! I am a little bleary eyes so forgive any grammatical errors.
> 
> So some things that you should know for this chapter. There is a vomiting trigger warning. Nothing graphic or particularly detailed but I wanted to make sure to warn you if that squicks you out. 
> 
> And secondly regarding our good friend BARF. I have taken certain liberties. The BARF/EDITH hybrid of Far From Home is non existent here as this would have been one of Tony's earliest working prototypes and as such, much less flashy. The way the memory is chosen is a little different as well, as well as the effects per user. Remember these were calibrated for Tony specifically and we still see him nursing an electromagnet headache in Civil War. We;ll go into more details as we go on but just wanted to establish these things.
> 
> As always thank you for the comments and kudos, we have surpassed 600 now which is just wild. I hope you continue to enjoy and let me know your thoughts down below! <3 <3 <3

Peter kept turning his head from the stove to the hallway that Ms. Potts, Howard and Mr. Stark had disappeared down. He couldn’t help but feel like he was partially responsible for whatever was going on. Everything had been going fine until he asked for help with his stupid web fluid, which he probably could have figured out on his own with a little more testing.

Now Mr. Stark was angry. Angrier than Peter had seen him in the short time he’d been making visits to the compound. He had always been so cool and funny and teasing before. Peter wasn’t sure he had even heard him really raise his voice, unless you counted the battle at the airport or telling off DUM-E or U when they knocked something over down in the lab. 

Howard was even more quiet, sullen even. Today was the most he had ever heard the man speak. Normally he kept to himself when they all worked. Peter wasn’t sure what that was all about but there was obviously some less than ideal past between him and Mr. Stark. 

“I wouldn’t worry about them,” Maria said, coming up behind him and pressing her hand against his back and rubbing reassuringly. “This doesn’t even rank in their top 10 arguments. Can you stir the pasta for me?”

Peter automatically reached out for the wooden spoon and did as she asked him too, spinning the handmade noodles around, making sure they didn’t stick to the pot at all. 

“What’s their deal? I really didn’t mean to cause any trouble…”

Maria sighed softly beside him and leaned back against the counter like she was debating what and how much to reveal. Peter didn’t blame her. He wasn’t family and this was clearly a long standing familial issue. Honestly he was practically a stranger to everyone here, an orphaned superhero plucked from the ashes of obscurity and granted the chance of a lifetime as Tony Stark’s apprentice and future member of the Avengers. Not that anyone but Tony and Happy knew that. 

“It’s okay, I shouldn’t have asked,” he spoke quickly turning back to the pasta. 

“Don’t you worry, Peter. I was just trying to figure out how best to sum my boys up,” she smiled kindly at him and it made something in his chest ache, like whenever he thought about his parents or Uncle Ben for too long. She may be used to this fighting but it was clear that it bothered her regardless.

“Anthony and Howard are too much alike for their own good, and unfortunately as a boy growing up that caused a lot of different problems. Howard never knew how to be a father, let alone to a boy who from a young age could give him a run for his money intellectually. It was stressful. He means well. He really does. They just have a lot of time to make up for, understandings that they need to come to in order to forgive and move on. I think you may be an important piece of the puzzle through it all.”

“Me?” he squeaked out surprised. “Why me?”

That smile was back, kind and knowing. “If you don’t understand now, you will someday.”

Okaaaaay. What was that supposed to mean? 

He mulled it over as Maria moved on, patting him on the back and instructing him through finishing the meal. He moved reflexively on autopilot. Surely, he couldn’t have turned things that topsy turvy in just a couple weeks? And even if he had, then why?

Peter doubted he’d figure it out tonight but resolved himself to pay closer attention to Mr. Stark and to Howard. Especially, if they all were ever invited back to the lab together again. Clearly he had misjudged their dynamic, always assuming that The Stark’s were a happy, problem free family, his assumptions being born from old news articles and videos and papers. Mr. Stark’s entire life was documented in the media and Peter could clearly remember old photos of Mr. Stark and his father together. He’d used some in his history project he had embarrassingly blabbed to Howard all about, perhaps he could dig that project back up again and take a closer look with the benefit of hindsight. 

* * *

Tony paced angrily back and forth in his bedroom, probably wearing a path in the carpet, so he would try and sit down, only to begin bouncing his leg up and down nervously before popping back up to resume his pacing as he replayed the fight in his mind. Well, he supposes it wasn’t really a fight. Howard had seemed way too surprised to even utter more than a questioning phrase. He knew what he did though. He had to have. Why else would he suddenly alter his very personality like that?

A memory came unbidden to him as he finally decided to strip and get in the shower, completely missing the clothes basket Pepper had always chided him to use when they were together. 

He was at MIT in his second year and gearing up for what would be the first presentation of DUM-E. He had been much less skillful in the ways of artificial life then, only having a rudimentary basis in his mind to go from, and everyone had thought he was crazy, including Howard. Yet one evening he had been tinkering away and Howard had shown up. No warning. No reason. There were no cameras following after him waiting to catch a glance of the ‘perfect’ father son duo. Just a random unsolicited visit. He claimed he was in the area for business, Shield probably, though Tony hadn’t known it at the time. 

Howard strutted through the robotics lab like he owned it and after a terse exchange had sat back and watched Tony as he worked, or tried to. His every move became critiqued, questioned, which only grew worse when Tony purposefully defied whatever advice the man provided, leading to another argument when Howard tried to wire the mainframe himself, lecturing about the precise nature of the project. 

Had he approached more civilly, less cock of the walk, deeming it upon himself to bestow Tony with knowledge like he was some kind of moron, then maybe Tony would have responded differently. Accepted, appreciated even, the help of another mind. Instead it led to one of their worst fights. Voices were raised, tempers flared and Howard stormed out without looking back. He was notably absent on the day of DUM-E’s first presentation, Jarvis and his mother unable to offer any clear answers. 

So, it was a little mind blowing to see that same man speak so gently to his apprentice, carefully correcting, biting back his tongue and showing utter patience, acting the way Tony had always wished that he would. 

The water in the shower practically scalded his skin, flesh turning pink beneath the pressure as he stood directly under the spray, letting it wash over his tense and aching body. He broke from his trance enough to wash but was slow to finish, not really wanting to get out and face the inevitable fall out. 

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad though, he thought as he finally shut the shower off and retrieved a towel, wiping his face and body down.  Maybe Pepper and his Mom would just let it go and Tony could just stay here, or slip away back to the lab. Rhodey was due in the morning and his last minute tinkering followed by his mental collapse had really thrown a wrench in his plans. He couldn’t just bail on Peter though either. 

Tony wrapped the towel around his waist and ran his hand over the mirror, wiping the steam from the glass and staring at his reflection. He looked exhausted but it was nothing a couple cups of coffee couldn’t solve. He would go eat dinner with the kid, maybe apologize for being an ass and then send him on his way back to May’s. Pepper wouldn’t bring up the incident in front of the kid and he would be able to sneak away easily enough to hide from everyone. 

It was perfect. Foolproof.

“Shit,” he muttered upon exiting the bathroom, clad still only in his towel, when he was met with Pepper’s patient form waiting on their bed expectantly.

So much for that plan.

“Hey,” she responded with a soft smile.

“Hey,” he returned awkwardly.

“We need to talk.”

“Nothing good ever follows those words.” He fidgeted where he stood in the doorway between this room and the bathroom and briefly contemplated going back inside but there was no stopping Pepper once he’d been spotted. Best to tackle this head on.

“Are you really going to grill me when I’m practically naked?”

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before,” she threw out there so casually like it wouldn’t affect him at all. 

He choked back the unsolicited pleasant memories that followed Pepper’s statement, now was definitely not the time for those thoughts, and instead reminded himself why she was here in the first place, why he was angry. 

“If it’s all the same…”

Pepper reached around behind her on the bed and produced a small stack of clothing. He approached her cautiously and took the bundle from her hands and waited for her to move or leave but she stayed glued to the spot. 

His face scrunched up in response. “Turn around.”

“Tony…”

“I’m just trying to protect my virtue here if you’re going to force me to talk about something so unpleasant.”

Pepper produced a long suffering sigh but turned her body around to face the opposite wall, even putting a hand over eyes to boot.

“There. Virtue protected. Not that I am sure you have ever had any,” she teased.

“I would take offense at that if I didn’t agree with you.” He turned his own body around for good measure and slipped on the boxer briefs that Pepper had picked out without ever removing the towel until he was completely covered. 

“So, what happened with Howard, Tony?”

She said it with the air of someone who already knew what was happening and though Tony knew that she knew, he wasn’t going to make it easy.

“I told you, ask him.”

“I did. It doesn’t sound like he did anything wrong.”

Tony clenched his jaw and swallowed back a sting of betrayal. It wasn’t unusual for Pepper to call him out on his behavior, though usually when she would he already knew that he had acted out, oftentimes doing it on purpose. This time he hadn’t been doing it to get a rise out of anyone or for show. He felt justifiable in this deep burning feeling in the pit of his gut and if Pepper wasn’t on his side then no one else would be either.

“You weren’t there,” he settled for, unable to keep the bite from his tone as he pulled on the pair of designer joggers. 

“You’re right, I wasn’t,” she explained calmly, not rising to his bait. “Why don’t you explain it to me from your point of view.”

Her calming presence was like a balm to his anger as it always was and Tony felt himself giving in as he sat down on the bed a couple feet away. He kept his eyes averted, his fingers gripping and pulling at the old faded Rolling Stones shirt she had picked out for him. 

“I lost my temper, okay?”

“Okay. Why?”

“I don’t know.”

Pepper turned to him then and reached her hand out to rest on his knee. “You can talk to me.”

He knew he could. She had been the only one that he could tell everything he was thinking or feeling and never be judged. He just didn’t know why this felt so different. Why he couldn’t explain why he had snapped at Howard and stormed away. 

“I couldn’t fix Peter’s web project. It’s stupid I know, but I tried and failed and then Howard came swooping in to save the day.”

Pepper nodded along encouragingly whenever he paused, gently squeezing his knee.

“You should have seen him Pep, it was like night and day. He was calm and helpful and he was teaching Peter. I’ve never seen him act like that before…”

“And it made you mad? Because he was treating Peter the way that he had never treated you?”

Tony narrowed his eyes as he traced around the words on the shirt he still held in his hands. He felt that same gnawing at the pit of his stomach that he felt in the lab. 

“Well, yeah. He barely knows Peter and yet there he was guiding him and giving advice and encouragement. I’d be lucky if he acknowledged my presence as a kid and you can forget advice. He’d lean over and fix what he thought was wrong himself, no gentle explanations about it and then just as quickly as he would burst in he would be gone. It just...it got to me. Seeing him and Peter like that...it just brought up a lot of emotions I thought I was over.”

“You were jealous.” she stated simply.

Jealous. That was it. Tony Stark, the man who had everything he could ever want was jealous. It wasn’t an entirely unfamiliar feeling. He had felt similarly whenever Howard did spend time with him only to spend the entire time talking about Captain America, ragling him with the same tales over and over and how he would give anything to have Cap back. Well, he’d got his wish and it still wasn’t enough. Not really.

“How messed up is that, Pep? Me being jealous of a kid? I mean this is Peter.” 

“Howard is your father though and you’re only reacting to something you wanted and never had. I’m not saying it’s not justifiable in a way, and it doesn’t make you a bad person, Tony. It makes you human.”

Yeah, human. Tony had been acutely aware of exactly how human he was since he took shrapnel to his chest. He felt like he hadn’t caught a break since then. 

“So, what do I do,” he whispered quietly, all energy drained from his body as he slouched forward, his arms crossed over his thighs. 

Pepper looked at him sympathetically and he already knew that he wasn’t going to like it. 

“I think that you need to figure out what you want from Howard. You’ve got him stuck between a rock and a hard place. He’s trying to make amends right? He’s said as much?”

“Yeah?”

“Okay, so I think he’s trying to do that now. I think he is purposefully trying to be different around Peter, to make amends for how you were treated. You have to decide if that’s something you can accept. For as many times as you guys have been stuck alone having conversations, I hoped this would have already come up. Nobody can move forward if they aren’t given the chance.”

Tony groaned. She was right. Of course she was. Pepper as he mentioned before was never wrong. He could mourn for the moments that he and Howard had lost together but as she said he couldn’t hold it against him too. Tony couldn’t have it both ways. 

“Why are you so smart?” he mumbled into his hands as he rubbed his face. 

“I’ve spent a lot of time around this really smart guy. And I’m a woman. We’re naturally smarter than men,” she said bumping shoulders with him. 

Feeling her skin against his reminded Tony that he had yet to put his shirt on. He made hasty work of the material slipping it over his head, little flecks of water going flying from his hair as he pulled it down. He winced a little as he strained his arm with the jerky motion enough for Pepper to notice.

“You really should have left the sling on,” she said, reaching out to pull a corner of the shirt down.

Tony had taken it off at the beginning of the week, surprisingly longer than he thought he’d humor everyone. For the most part he felt fine but if he moved too fast or picked up something too heavy he would feel the strain in his shoulder, He would be fine though. He always was.

“Couldn’t work in it,” he lamented very seriously but his eyes twinkled when he looked at Pepper’s own. He knew she could see through his bullshit.

“While we’re on the subject of honesty…” Pepper began and Tony felt his gut clench and churn as Pepper shifted nervously beside him. “I was going to wait until after dinner to talk to you, given everything that has happened tonight though I don’t want to wait any longer, though that may also be the wine talking,” she tried to grin at him.

He was losing her. That was the only thing going through his mind as he recounted the last few weeks for whatever he had done wrong. Perhaps it was just the stress of the situation. Pepper had been wholed up in the compound with Tony and his family this entire time, going through the day to day operations of SI from her office. When she wasn’t there his mother was occupying her time. Not to mention all the interference she had been running for him and Howard. Pepper was used to stress, he’d put her through a lot over the years but he really was asking a lot with this one.

Tony drew back away from her on the bed and his head hung as he waited for Pepper to drop the gauntlet. Tell him she was going back to the city. 

“Tony, look at me,” she whispered softly and brought her hand to cup his cheek. Unwillingly he followed the steady pressure until he was looking at her, suddenly much closer than she had been before, the distance he had put between them completely diminished. Her eyes flickered briefly from his eyes to his lips and then back again.

He cocked his head to the side trying to rationalize her expressions, knowing there was no way she was thinking what he thought she was when suddenly her head dipped forward and closed the gap between them, her soft lips pressing against his for the first time in  _ months.  _ He sat there a little slow on the uptake as his brain had to reboot before returning the kiss with one of his own.

This was happening.

Pepper was in his arms and they were kissing and god had her lips always tasted this good? Or was that just the space of time distorting the memory? Her hand fell from his cheek down around his neck holding him to her, his own hands instantly finding a home at her hips, as she pulled back from him. Her face was a little flushed as she scanned his expression again with a grin and leaned her forehead in against his.

“So...yeah. Good talk, “ Tony mumbled, heart still a flutter. 

“I figured actions speak louder than words.”

“They do. Um. Kind of. Does this mean what I think or was this just like a really nice, friendly moment between just friends?”

“Do friends normally kiss?”

“In Europe? I think?”

Nothing was making sense in his brain right now. Pepper was so close to him, the taste of her still on his lips and he just wanted to bring her back to him but he had to know, he had to be sure, because there was already so much confusion and damn uncertainty in his life right now, he couldn’t handle one more thing. Not this.

Pepper smiled and leaned in to him again, this time being pretty blatant about her feelings, her tongue demanding entrance that he easily granted. It was like a weight being lifted off of his chest. A piece of his life finally slotting back into place.

“Okay, friends definitely don’t kiss like that in Europe,” he gasped as they broke back apart. 

Pepper laughed and his heart soared. “I want to try again. If you think you’re ready, too. I’ll understand if you’re not after everything that has happened but I just didn’t want to wait any longer. Waking up next to you every morning has been...amazing. Rejuvenating even. I know that we have a long way to go but I am ready to start. I’m tired of letting my worry hold me back from the best thing in my life.”

Tony was stunned. “Isn’t that usually my line?” he stuttered out.

“Yeah, but I beat you to it. Sometimes you need to hear those words too.”

He smiled genuinely, his heart feeling full as he took in this beautiful woman that he had been to hell and back with, multiple times. She was really here, still by his side, loving him. It made no logical sense really but he and Pepper had always been about overcoming the odds.

“Well. I’m game if you are. Though as a scientist I think we should test out the kissing bit one more time just to make sure though. For science.”

Pepper laughed and easily fell back against him, her arms coming to loop around his neck completely, pressing closely against his chest. With Pepper in his arms all thoughts of Howard and jealousy faded completely away.

* * *

The first emotion that registered in Howard’s mind was one of confusion. When the glasses activated a white light seemed to fill the room, or at the very least his own perception of the room, and for a moment he thought that perhaps he had fallen asleep and was dreaming this up as the light faded away. Or maybe he had hit his head on the underside of the roadster while he was working on it, it would at least help explain the dull thudding of the precursor to a headache behind his eyes. One thing was for sure and that was that what he was seeing wasn’t making any sense.

He was back in Tony’s workshop. Only it was different? It seemed smaller, more claustrophobic somehow. Like a dream. Everything seemed a little fuzzy around the edges, the white light having not completely dulled after all. 

Tony was with Peter, they were working on that weird spider web formula. Truthfully Howard didn’t know why Peter had even chosen it as a project but he hadn’t been kidding over his obsession with spiders. Sometimes he caught snippets of the boy and Tony’s conversations and they seemed to constantly be discussing it in hushed whispers. But this had already happened, right? 

That’s when his eyes caught a glimpse of another figure, loitering at the roadster in front of him and it was... himself. It was a perfect replica of himself, from his carefully maintained mustache right down to the grease stains on his forearms. 

For a brief moment he thought maybe he was dead, going so far as to check his pulse, which was there, erratically so he discovered, and how would that make sense to be dead when a living, breathing copy of himself was not five feet away from him. 

He took deep breaths to try and calm himself, wiping sweaty palms on his khaki pants, when he remembered the glasses. His hands darted to his face and he felt the thick rims still sitting comfortably against his nose. Perhaps these glasses acted as some sort of time machine? He had seen the advancements the world and Stark Industries in particular had made in the last couple of decades, he wouldn’t be entirely surprised. He was starting to understand that if anyone could pull off such a feat of tech then It was definitely Tony. 

Howard watched the scene play out before him as he continued to regain his bearings. Everything still felt a little wobbly and off kilter, the adrenaline rushing through his system doing nothing to help alleviate the feeling. 

It all played out just as he remembered. 

The Howard in front of him offering to help when the experiment went belly up. Only this time the real Howard decided to take the opportunity to watch Tony’s reactions. If this was some kind of preternatural event then he wanted to learn from what he was being shown. 

Tony seemed uncomfortable throughout the exchange but it really ramped up he noticed, when he actually began talking Peter through his steps, guiding him to the creation of a successful web fluid creation, adapted to his new specifications. Tony watched them like a hawk, mouth agape. At the time Howard remembered catching a glance of the expression though he had chalked it up to something else entirely, though now that he was paying more attention, the younger man’s shoulders were drawn tight as he hunched over his project, hands clenched into fists until he was white knuckled. 

This wasn’t what Howard had wanted then. He was just trying to help, to prove to Tony that he could be trusted with this young apprentice he had taken a shine to, and maybe learn from where he already knew that he had failed with his son. He had failed to show him patience, encouragement. Tony had always had an incredible mind and Howard was proud of the idea of his son’s legacy surpassing his own, even now that it actually had, he still felt the same, but he had rarely done a damn thing to nurture that mind. He looked at Peter and he saw Tony. So, he gave Peter the chance his son never had. 

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you,” Howard said, stepping forward, only instead of it being his actual self doing these things, it was his counterpart having stepped away from Peter where they’d wandered around to the roadster.

Tony jumped forward, knocking over a coffee mug in the process, the mug falling to its side and rolling to the ground, not shattering but chipping the rim. Tony scrambled to correct himself, grabbing an old rag to mop up the mess before him all while staring at replica Howard like her had sprouted wings.

The dull thudding that Howard had initially recognized upon waking from the white haze bag to become more prominent as the events of the evening continued to diverge, like his thoughts and replica Howard’s thoughts were one and the same only that apprehension, that filter so carefully crafted around his words was removed.

“What did you just say?” Tony stammered, still mopping furiously at the mess.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I treated you so poorly growing up and I don’t have any excuse that could possibly make it right,” the replica Howard continued. 

The pounding in Howard’s brain grew more severe, the fuzzy white lines of the room amplifying worse than any migraine or hangover pain that Howard had ever felt before, but something told him he had to go on, he had to say his peace whether this was real or a dream or time travel gone array. If he never got any other chance, he wanted to at least follow through now. 

“I was scared. I’ve been scared since the day your mother told me she was pregnant.”

“Scared of what?” the Tony...or not Tony, questioned, his voice echoing strangely in the room as the facade began to fade. 

“Scared of you turning out to be just like me.”

“Would that have been so bad?”

It was getting harder to think through the palpitations in his head, a wave of dizziness and nausea washing over him and his hands instinctively flew to the frames on his face to try and deactivate whatever this was, to get back to the comforts of his room. He snapped a finger to the button on the side, the one that bathed the world in white, but he had to answer this last question.

“I was never meant to be a father,” the replica Howard choked out.

He would never know how or if Tony responded to him. As soon as the words were out the button was pressed and the glasses ripped from his face with a gasp. He was sweaty and disoriented as the image shattered and he found himself right where he had been, sitting on the bed in his room in the compound, the clock on his bedside table indicating a passage of ten minutes. 

The glasses were shoved back into the night stand, Howard shooting up and stumbling his way to the ensuite as a wave of nausea hit him, the migraine like pain having not abated by much with the deactivation of the glasses. He caught a glimpse of his pale, stricken face in the mirror, the hair at the base of his neck and temples sweat soaked as he collapsed before the toilet, managing to open the lid before losing the meager lunch he had shared with the boys that day. He wretched undignified into the bowl for a few minutes longer before it was replaced with bouts of dry heaving and finally tapering out.

He collapsed beside the bowl in exhaustion, feeling only minor relief as he wiped at the dribble at the corner of his mouth. His chest ached from the vomiting and the rest of his body felt simply sapped of all energy and life force, like he had just finished running a ten k marathon in the desert. The throbbing had begun to settle into a more manageable, yet no less debilitating migraine, the lights of the bathroom feeling like he was staring into the sun.

Well.

This did not go the way that he had expected it to at all. 

Howard just hoped he could gather the energy to get up and into the bed before he passed out on the bathroom floor like the drunkard he had used to be. It wouldn’t do to frighten Maria like that. 

For a brief moment he contemplated calling on Friday for help but he wasn’t sure what all she had the capability of monitoring, and if she knew that he had been messing with Tony’s technology then she would certainly tell his son and that would be that.

He sat gathering his strength on the cool tile floor and slowly lifted his weary body, one hand grasping at the wall behind him for balance. He managed to flush the toilet and rinse his mouth out with water and a quick gurgle of mouthwash, his legs threatening to buckle beneath him where he stood. Somehow he managed to cross the room, shucking the oppressive clothing from his body, only just making it into a tank top and cotton pajama pants before finally crashing mercifully into the soft downy fabric. 

He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

Maria observed Anthony and Pepper over the dinner table with great scrutiny. Something had changed between the duo and she wasn’t able to put her finger on it. They had come down the stairs together not fifteen minutes earlier and though they acted the same, they kept that same awkward distance and kept up the same banter there was something new there, something different when they looked at each other or brushed fingertips as they worked together to set the table. 

Perhaps it was just the lack of tension that had been lingering around her son for days. Whatever talk Pepper had had with him seemed to have the desired effect. 

Anthony had made quick work when they returned to apologize to Peter, pulling the boy to the side and holding his eyes, giving him his full attention and respect. It ended with a hesitant pat to the shoulder, his hand hovering above Peter at first like he wasn’t sure if the touch would be welcome but Peter had smiled and offered the same, coming back to the table together laughing over Star Wars. 

Now they were just waiting on Howard, the table set, the food displayed. Even Harold, (though Anthony had introduced him as Happy, a move the big mean seemed resigned to suffer through) had joined them at the table as Peter proceeded to chat his ear off.

When Howard still didn’t appear after five minutes and then ten minutes Maria began to get worried. 

“Go ahead and start eating, I’m going to go see if he fell in,” Maria said trying to make light of her worries. 

“You sure Mom? I can go with you…” Anthony offered politely.

“No, no, I’m fine. Eat your food. No dessert until you clear your plate, Pepper will tell me if you try to sneak it.”

Anthony rolled his eyes. “Please, I’m not seven anymore.”

“That’s debatable,” Harold added from the end of the table drawing Anthony and the others into a joking conversation and allowing Maria to slip on out of the room and towards the shared bedroom.

The door was shut and the light off when she arrived and placed her hand on the scanner. It was very unlike Howard to go to bed early but there the lump of his body laid on the bed. She came around to face him, kneeling before him and placing a cautious hand to his temple. The skin there felt cool and clammy and she finally began to get a clear picture of what had happened when he moaned softly and turned into her palm.

“Howard,” she whispered in the darkened room and he struggled to open his eyes, settling for an incoherent murmur. “Migraine?” she offered instead and he slowly nudged his head up and down. 

Howard had always had bouts with severe migraines for as long as she had known them. They had a habit of making themselves known in times of stress or great upheaval and she said a silent prayer of thanks that none had befallen him during their time in captivity. Something told her that Hydra wouldn’t have cared very much.

She stood up and went into the bathroom, a faint aroma of nausea still hanging thick in the air. It was a really bad one then. It was too late for medicine to provide much relief but she still pulled a couple tablets out before filling a small paper cup with water and finally wetting and wringing out a cool washcloth. Supplies in place she returned to his side and nudged him again.

“Take a couple pills, How. It’ll give you a little relief at least.”

He moaned again beneath her but shuffled into an upright position on his elbow, his eyes bleary and unfocused when they opened. She offered the medication and he took both, downing the water completely before collapsing back against the pillows. Maria wiped at his temple before draping the cool cloth across his forehead and down over his eyes, the way he had always liked it. 

“Get some rest. I'll make sure to save you some food for later.”

She made to stand up but suddenly Howard’s hand shot out to grasp her by the wrist and then slide down into her palm, squeezing tightly.

“Are you okay? Is there anything else you need?” she asked, leaning back in concerned. 

He shook his head no but the grip didn’t relinquish. She ran a hand up and down his back in a soothing motion waiting for him to speak or the pain to pass. After several minutes he finally made a move to speak, his voice raspy in spite of the water he had just drank, she’d have to remember to refill the cup and leave it at the bedside.

“Do you ever regret us?” he finally rasped out, so quietly, so utterly un-Howard like. 

“What are you talking about? Of course I don’t. Why would you ever think that?”

She almost called for Friday to get Anthony. She had never heard that kind of doubt come from his lips in the decades that they had been married. Howard was always confident and self assured. She wasn’t sure if it was the migraine doing the talking, forcing strange thoughts to flow through unfiltered or if it was the disagreement with Anthony tonight but it was disconcerting all the same.

“I’ve failed at being a father. Tony will always hate me and it’s all my fault.”

“No, no, no. Tony doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t know you,” she whispered back to him, her tone still firm and assured in its quiet steadiness. “You two are going to work this out. It will just take a lot of time and patience and screw ups before you finally get it right, but you will one day, and you’ll never look back.”

Maria left him no room to doubt because she herself held no more doubts. They were given this second chance with their son for a reason, and Anthony may be grown now but he was still also that same boy craving his father’s approval and affection. If they’d both let their guards down and let bygones be bygones then she had no qualms about them having as rich a relationship as she shared with each of them. If she had to pester and nudge and lock them in a room together until they understood each other she would. 

“Don’t think of this right now,” she said and gently fluffed the pillow beneath his head and stood to pull the duvet out from under his body and wrap it around him. “It's just a black night sweetheart, it’ll look differently in the morning. Rest now.”

She ran her hand across his cheek before leaning in to press a soft kiss to his cheek and temple respectively. His grip in her hand lessened and she sat with him until his chest rose and fell in the peaceful, steady rhythms of sleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter - Enter Rhodey. *cues up Back in Black*


	16. The Colonel Has Landed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2am Tuesday...woooooo. 
> 
> So, our beloved Rhodey has descended to make his grand re-entrance into the story and can I just say what a pleasure it is writing him? He is just so much fun.
> 
> Not many notes for today. I am going to go crash for work. Leave me some love in the kudos and comments below! Thank you so much to everyone who continues to join me every week. I love you all. Stay safe. <3

Howard spent the rest of the night in bed drifting in and out of sleep and memories he’d long since thought forgotten. The migraine like headache eased only slightly with the help of time and the medicine that Maria had given him. He no longer felt like he wanted to puke up his entire digestive system and the throbbing behind his eyes had settled into a steady thrum as opposed to wild jackhammering of before. 

Maria checked on him twice more, refreshing his washcloth over his eyes and fluffing pillows or making him drink a few sips of water. He took comfort whenever her hands delicately brushed through his hair or she pressed her lips to his cheek as she readied herself for bed, going about her own routine before crawling in bed beside him. 

He tried to use the times of semi-consciousness to think but his thoughts still came through sluggishly, his mind slowing beyond its normal speed of being five steps ahead of the world, and he wondered how the average person could function like this. 

The images that did always seem to come to his mind crystal clear were what he had seen through the glasses. Howard still wasn’t sure whether what he had seen had been an elaborate illusion, or some form of time travel. Maybe even an alternate dimension. He didn’t remember anything differently, there were no new outcomes in his mind, he’d still followed after Tony to be cut off by Pepper and Maria in the kitchen. He supposed he wouldn’t know for sure until the dawn came and he interacted with Tony again and seeing if anything had changed from that evening. 

Then again, maybe he wouldn’t need Tony to test out his time travel hypothesis. If he had really gone back into time and somehow changed the argument between them, then Tony’s coffee mug would have a chip in it from where it had been knocked off the edge of his table in the workshop. Howard opened his eyes cautiously, moving the mostly dry rag by now, from his eyes and glanced towards the window. The sun was just beginning to come out, most of the compound still bathed in darkness. The clock beside him read 6:18AM, no one else should be awake yet. 

Just like his thoughts, his body was slow moving that morning, and for the first time he actually felt his age as he grunted and shuffled off the edge of the bed. The dizziness from before had thankfully subsided and along with it the nausea, so he was able to move about mostly unhindered. He moved about quietly so as not to disturb Maria and exited the room, heading down the way towards the lab. He’d forgotten to put on any socks or slippers as he went about so the floors beneath his feet were shockingly cool in the morning air. Everything was still dark in the residential wing but Howard still made sure not to linger near Tony’s suite as he continued on to the lab elevator. 

Howard raised his palm to the scanner and he briefly wondered if instead of green, the scanner would light up red, blocking his access once more. Or perhaps worse, Tony could already be in the lab and Howard wasn’t sure if he was ready for another confrontation so early with his head still pounding. 

He sighed and looked up to the ceiling. “Friday?” he spoke softly.

“Yes, Mr. Stark?” she responded with equal tones.

“Is Tony in the lab right now?”

“Boss, is still sleeping in his room. He has not returned to the lab since last evening. Would you like for me to reach him for you?”

“No! No, no. Just wanted to see what I was walking into. Thank you, Friday.”

Howard pressed his hand to the scanner and despite his fears it immediately let up green and the elevator doors opened to him. He got inside and leaned back up against the rail, his heart starting to pound in anticipation. He wasn’t sure what he’d actually do if the mug was chipped like in the vision but he suddenly couldn’t get the idea out of his mind that perhaps there was an easier way to fix their issues. 

He all but bolted out of the elevator car when the doors reopened to the lab and everything did seem just as he and Peter had left the night before, hastily putting tools away and cleaning up anything potentially hazardous. Howard’s eye fell to Tony’s station and he slowly made his way towards the unassuming object, a white mug with a black Stark Industries logo wrapping around it. He reached out for the handle and his dreams of time traveled shattered into pieces when he saw it was still half filled with cold coffee. He turned the mug in his palms anyways, searching for any dinks or chips in the rim but it was manufacturer perfect aside from the sloshing liquid staining the insides. 

“Damn,” he muttered, still clutching the mug in his hands. That theory was seemingly abandoned and he was back to the drawing board. 

* * *

There was an extra pep in Pepper’s step that morning as she went about her morning routine, preparing for the endless conference calls with department heads and countless emails from concerned board members, griping over some non-existent issue or another, that couldn’t be handled by anyone but her directly. Even so, as she finished buttoning up her blouse and checking her makeup, the day didn’t seem as daunting as it normally did. She’d by lying if she said that it was for something other than her change in relationship status, which she did feel a little shallow for, but it had been like a weight had been lifted from her chest when she finally gathered her courage and just put herself out there. 

In all actuality nothing much had really been changed by this reconciliation, she and Tony had always had the qualities and foundation of a close relationship, even way before they actually did anything about it on that rooftop in 2010. She was worried it might feel a little bit strange adding the physical elements back into their lives but when they kissed it was like they picked up where they left off, nothing wrong or off about it, just simply relief. An emotional connection was tentatively reforged and suddenly everything was new and exciting again. 

She walked back out into the bedroom, her routine for once not having woken Tony up and she placed a soft kiss on his temple, pushing his hair back gently. She had a much better feeling about their chances of making it this time around, even if it felt like there were more outside forces than ever demanding their time and attention. Tony was slowly learning how to work through his issues and not hiding away from her or shutting her out when he became overwhelmed. If he could just continue on that path and keep her in the loop beside him then she saw no reason why they couldn’t deal with whatever life throws at them next.

Pepper made her way downstairs to the kitchen and immediately started the coffee pot for Tony. Rhodey would be arriving at the Compound with Vision soon so she was sure he wouldn’t be sleeping in too late this morning. She had just decided on a smoothie to go with her breakfast that morning when she heard the elevator doors from the lab opening. She frowned and turned towards them, wondering who could have been coming out of them this early with Tony still in the bed, when in walked a haggard looking Howard Stark, holding a coffee mug close to him. 

The older man startled a bit when he saw her, clearly not expecting anyone else up at this hour. He looked exhausted. Maria had told them last night that he had had a migraine and that’s why he decided not to join them for dinner, but Pepper had thought maybe it was just a polite excuse so he wouldn’t have to face Tony. Looking at him now though she could tell it had been legitimate. 

“You look like crap,” Pepper said softly in case he was like Tony and still hypersensitive to sound post-migraine. To her surprise he laughed softly in response.

“I suppose I do.” His voice was raspy from disuse and sleep.

“Were you down in the lab just now?’ she asked, more than a little confused. He didn’t look like he was in any shape to be doing any kind of work in the lab but she had certainly seen Tony after a creative binge and figured that kind of manic work ethic wasn’t entirely acquired on his own. Still. It seemed strange if he had been feeling as bad as Maria insinuated. 

Howard’s eyes widened a bit as he turned back towards the elevator doors and then back to evaluate Pepper. Then he raised his hand that was holding the mug and came towards where she stood at the island. 

“I, uh, forgot my mug downstairs after everything that had happened. Wanted to grab it and get some coffee.” He proceeded to dump the old contents of the mug out in the sink and began rinsing and cleaning it. 

“You know there’s an entire cabinet of coffee mugs, right?” Pepper asked, motioning to the cabinet over her shoulder. She offered him a smile figuring that he was probably still out of it.

“Oh. Of course there is,” he responded looking a little sheepish.

“Migraine right? Maria told us last night.”

“Yeah, came out of nowhere. It was like being transported to an entirely different plain,” he spoke carefully, frowning down at the mug in the sink. 

“I completely understand. How are you feeling? I have a pretty good migraine hangover remedy but it involves the blender and I don’t want to make anything worse.”

“Oh. Yeah, I’m fine. You can do whatever,” he said and moved around the counter to sit down. 

Luckily Pepper already had most of what she needed out but she reached back into the fridge grabbing enough ingredients for Howard as well. She carefully observed him as she moved about but he remained unfocused and distant in the eyes like he was thinking really hard about something. He was probably still worrying over the fallout with Tony yesterday having gone to bed before anything was completely resolved. 

“Tony and I spoke about the incident in the lab last night, I think that we may have gotten to the root of the problem.”

Howard’s head shot up towards her. “Really? What was it?”

“He’s just working through a lot of emotions that he thought were buried. Seeing you with Peter and how you treated him...it just stirred it all up. Not to say you did anything wrong yesterday, it’s just a lot still to take in. A lot of patience may be required.”

Howard nodded along with her words as if he suspected as much. “I’m trying. I was never good at parenting. Even less so to try and parent an adult. Give me a machine, any kind, I can take it apart, see how it functions, make adjustments, improvements and have it back together and better than ever. Put me in front of my kid...I don’t have the slightest idea of how to fix him, how to make him better, make us better rather. I might as well be dealing with a stranger.”

“There is no rulebook for this situation. Just take it a day at a time and be patient. Don’t let his bark scare you away.”

Pepper loaded the blender and started it, the sound echoing loudly throughout the vacant compound. Howard seemed to be processing her words carefully, remaining quiet until she was finished with the smoothie and pouring it out into a tall glass for him. She pushed it in front of him and turned to pour her own. 

“Banana Blueberry smoothie. It seems very basic, I know, but I have it on good authority that it works wonders.”

“Whose authority is that?” he asked and sipped at the contents. 

“Tony’s. He gets migraines a lot too. When they pass he just needs one of these and a cup of coffee and he’s as good as new.”

“I don’t know why I expected anyone else,” he smiled somberly and went back to his drink. 

Pepper didn’t know if it was because he reminded her so much of Tony or simply because he was his father or just another human being in need but she reached across the counter and gripped his forearm in her and gently squeezed.

“It may not seem like it now, Howard, but everything is going to be alright.”

* * *

Tony spent the day mentally preparing for the arrival of his best friend, but no matter what mental image he conjured himself to deal with, it all paled to utter insignificance to the absolute gut punch of seeing Rhodey in his wheelchair for the very first time. He tried to school his features as he casually strolled to the edge of the quinjet’s landing pad but judging from the souring look on Rhodey’s face he wasn’t doing a very good job keeping his emotions in check. 

Rhodey pointed his finger at Tony. “Don’t even start. Just get over here and give me a hug, man.”

His tone left no room for argument as Tony laughed nervously and bent down to hug his friend. Rhodey always gave the best hugs, ever since they had been kids at MIT. It was always this tight, almost bearhug like hold, and it never failed to dissolve Tony’s excess tension, letting it all go in one deep, relaxing breath. Rhodey patted him firmly on the back twice and released Tony from his grasp knowing Tony wouldn’t have released him first. 

Tony took a couple steps back and shoved his hands into his jean pockets, trying to keep his eyes from wandering to Rhodey’s legs, though more so he could mentally picture the man in the braces that finally sat finished and waiting for their recipient in Rhodey’s room. 

“You look good, platypus. Bed rest suits you.”

“Yeah, well you look like shit, so whatever crazy idea you’ve been working on unfortunately does not do the same for you,” Rhodey replied without missing a beat, so used to this back and forth after all of these years.

“I resent that. I’ve been making you a gift and you can’t even kiss up to me a tiny bit?”

“Have I ever?” he retorted.

Tony rolled his eyes. “True.”

“Hey, speaking of gifts…” Rhodey reached around behind him where a satchel had been hooked onto the handles of the wheelchair. Rhodey only stayed part time at the compound so Vision had gone to Rhodey’s apartment in the city to collect some of his other personal items. Tony supposed he probably should have given his family a heads up on a giant blue and red android walking around the compound but they’d deal with that particular oddness later. 

Tony’s focus returned to Rhodey as he pulled out some papers. “Lila made these for you.”

Rhodey handed over the papers that turned out to be drawings, pretty damn good ones if Tony did say so himself, first of Tony and Rhodey with their suits and then on another page was just Tony as himself holding hands with a little girl with braids and purple hair bows, smiles as big as their faces. Each drawing was labeled ‘To Uncle Tony, Love Lila’ with little hearts around the words. Tony’s smile matched the one in the drawings.

“My niece is going to have work hanging in the Louvre at the rate of progress her art is making,” he said, still smiling at the drawings. Kid art was one of his weaknesses, as demonstrated by the atrium full of works, but even more so when it was from someone he personally knew. Lila was constantly making him and Rhodey artwork and Tony had no doubts that she was obviously the most talented eight year old in her class. 

Rhodey rolled his eyes good naturedly. “You’re soft, man.”

“Can’t prove it.”

Rhodey gave him a look but reached into his bag again pulling out a small disposable tin pan. “Mama also sends her love,” he said, handing the pan over.

“She didn’t…”

“She did.”

The pan crackled in Tony’s hand as he drooled over the contents inside, Mama Rhodes homemade peanut butter fudge. Tony had been hooked from the first time he stole a nibble out of a care package she had sent to MIT and Mama Rhode made him an extra batch any time she sent one to Rhodey or later on when they were older to send to him on holidays. There was nothing like it. 

“She also told me to tell you that the private jet to Germany was a bit excessive and she could ride coach like everyone else...but she is beyond grateful. And so am I. I didn’t think I needed them but...it really helped a lot.”

Tony waved him off. “You couldn’t get to Philly so I brought Philly to you. Really it’s not a big deal. Did you really think I was going to leave you to the mercy of Vision and his jello?”

It had been a no brainer really after his panic induced call to Rhodey a couple of weeks back. Rhodey had said he didn’t need anything, but as Tony was slowly relearning, there were some things that just required a mother’s love. So, he had surprised the Rhodes clan with a roundtrip all expenses paid trip to Germany to see him. Rhodey had always been a very family oriented person and Tony knew the lack of contact would be killing him. 

“Still. Thank you.”

Tony shrugged his shoulders awkwardly, dropping his eyes back down to the treat he held in his hands. It wasn’t something he had done for the thanks, just because it was the right thing to do. He had helped however indirectly to put Rhodey in that chair and he could never make that up to the older man until the day he died, but he’d sure as hell try. 

“Besides, Vision has really taken this guilt thing to heart. He reminds me of those little aliens in Toy Story pledging their lives or whatever to Mr. Potato Head.”

Tony raised an eyebrow to him sending Rhodey on the defensive.

“It’s Lila’s favorite movie, don’t act like you’ve never watched it with her. There’s only so much for a kid to do in a hospital room.”

Tony snorted. “Well, it’s not Mama Rhodes’ peanut butter fudge but I do have quite the welcome home food spread going for you if you’re ready to get inside,” he replied motioning to the door. 

“You didn’t try to cook did you? Please tell me you ordered in?”

“Oh god no, I’m not trying to kill you, though I am starting to become pretty proficient in the art of omelet making. And this is better than ordering in, we’ll do that tomorrow, get some pizzas or something when the kid drops by.”

Rhodey’s eyes narrowed. “Does whatever is in there have to do with whatever unnamed trauma you didn’t want to tell me about a couple weeks ago?”

“Yes and no? I don’t know if I’d categorize it at this point as trauma but there is definitely an adjustment period underway.”

“An adjustment that cooks dinner?’

“Authentic italian dinner.”

Rhodey sighed and pretended to steel himself. “Well, whatever it is let's get it out in the open then.”

There was a brief awkward pause for a moment while Tony wondered if maybe he was supposed to push Rhodey’s chair before Rhodey reached down to the wheels and pushed his way inside the compound, Tony holding the door and following after him. 

Once inside Rhodey followed Tony to the common room and kitchen area, the smell of dinner wafting throughout the halls. The long dining table used for team meals was set for six people and already had a large salad bowl sitting in the middle, as well as a loaf of garlic bread, still steaming. Just as they had been the night before, Pepper and Maria stood to one side of the island, chatting and laughing over a glass of wine. Tony caught Pepper’s eye and she smiled brightly at him before returning to the conversation. Howard was nowhere to be seen, and had avoided Tony the entire day, citing that he still wasn’t feeling 100%. Tony was actually relieved for once by the man’s absence.

“Tony…” Rhodey began quietly as he took in the sight before them, eyes narrowing as he cocked his head slightly to one side. “Is that…”

“Yep.”

“She’s alive?”

“Howard too,” Tony confirmed.

“For how long?”

“Technically or chronologically?”

“Nevermind. How?”

“Long story short, Hydra.”

Rhodey nodded his head, expression never changing as his brain continued processing. 

“Shit.”

“I know right?”

“Imma have Mama send you some bourbon balls too. Something tells me that you need all the strong comfort food you can get at this point.”

“It’s incredible isn’t it?”

“It is and yet somehow I am really not all that surprised. Extraordinary things always seem to follow you around. Resurrected parents are pretty tame compared to every other possibility that was running through my mind. And don’t think we aren’t going to talk about this.”

“Trust me, I know there’s no way out of that one. Besides I could use your guidance on a few things I’m dealing with.”

“No shit you do. Wow. This is wild.”

The both continued staring in silence as the two women talked and worked together on the dinner. 

“Pepper looks happy,” Rhodey broke the silence, turning to Tony knowingly, ready to fish for information.

“Yeah, she does doesn’t she?” He agreed as straight faced as possible.

“You know anything about that?” Rhodey continued undaunted.

“Stock market prices are at an all time high.”

Tony couldn’t even keep the grin off of his face no matter how he tried. He was quite happy himself despite all the other chaos orbiting his life. His heart was full whenever he thought of Pepper and their upgraded relationship status. It felt right and familiar. 

“You’re holding out on me, I can’t believe it. You took my advice didn’t you?”

“C’mon, Rhodey, you know I don’t kiss and tell.”

Rhodey tsked. “Over thirty years of friendship has proven that’s a lie.”

“Excuse me, Colonel Rhodes, I’ve finished bringing your bags to your room for you. Is there anything else you require?” Vision’s soft, even voice spoke from somewhere directly behind Tony’s right shoulder and he couldn’t help but to jump, so caught up in watching Pepper’s movements.

“I have a well documented heart condition, is it going to take a literal heart attack to get you people to make some noise when you walk?” he sputtered out, turning to face the android.

Vision regarded him with the same even temperament as he regarded everything, though Tony was able to detect a level of mirth behind his eyes. “My apologies.”

“No, no. Don’t let him get away with that,” Rhodey said, tapping the back of his hand up against Vision’s side. “I’m starting to think it’s you that has a problem, Tones. How old did you just turn? Do we need to fit you for hearing aids, or what’s that infomercial called that comes on only at like two in the morning? Magic Ear?”

“Ha ha. You’re older than I am honeybear so make sure you order some for yourself too.”

“Yeah, yeah. Thanks Vis, I’ve got nothing else for you buddy. Tony can take over the indentured servitude from here I think.”

“Of course,” Vision smiled politely and turned to Tony. “In that case I’ll be headed to Wakanda. King T’Challa has reached out to me about assisting with the UN Council to bring the team home, though I suppose that was probably your doing as well, sir?”

“It was,” Tony answered. “I, uh, also wanted to let you know that we were able to get Wanda moved from isolation and in with the rest of the team. She’s safe.”

Several different emotions that shouldn’t have been possible for an artificial life form to feel, flickered over Vision’s features. Tony liked to think that some of Vision's evolving nature was owed to whatever remained of Jarvis. Jarvis had always been able to evolve and show a wider range of emotions than any of his AI’s thus far, though Friday was following in his footprints. Maybe it was Jarvis at all though, maybe it was the stone and whatever magic that was contained inside. Or maybe it was all just inherently Vision, becoming what he was always meant to be. 

“Thank you. I’ve been worried. I will keep you both up to date on the council and the impending hearings.”

“Jarvis?”

All three of the men’s heads snapped towards the newcomer and Tony mentally kicked himself for his short sightedness. Despite all of his talk Rhodey still seemed very taken aback to see a rumpled Howard Stark standing before him in the flesh, looking like he had seen a ghost himself. Vision was the first to recover, sticking out his hand for the man to shake. Howard hesitated before gradually accepting, eyes darting all over Vision’s form, looking for a man who was no longer there.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark, we haven’t met before. I am the Vision. Or just Vision is fine.”

“How did you know?” Howard asked, still gobsmacked. 

“Ah yes. While I am not the Mr. Jarvis that you speak of, I still retain useful data from Tony Stark’s original AI Jarvis. His memory banks held much information of yours and your wife’s accident. I remember your photograph.”

“Oh. It’s just...your voice…” the man mumbled out.

Vision nodded his head sympathetically and looked from Tony back to Howard. “Yes, I hear that a lot. I’m sorry.” Vision turned back to Tony then, his cool demeanor a little shaken. 

It happened like this sometimes whenever Vision would remember certain things from the AI. It was like he was fighting some strange dual personality, remembering shattered remains of an existence he had never lived. Usually it was Tony who triggered these moments, Vision suddenly remembering funny anecdotes or memories, sometimes even something as benign as food preferences. Most of the time he could shake off the little things but the memories were less easy. 

“I shall speak to you in a day or two, yes?” Vision’s casual Mr. Rogers sweater and slacks combo suddenly faded to nothingness, his yellow cape and preferred flying outfit appearing. Now that he wasn’t escorting Rhodey he didn’t have to worry about such decorum as casual wear, and he sure wasn’t going to waste time flying a quinjet to Wakanda.

“Sounds good buddy. Talk to ya soon. Thanks for bringing Rhodey home.”

Vision nodded. “Colonel Rhodes,” he spoke softly and nodded towards him and the other men before taking off, phasing through the building as he took flight.

“What the fuck…” Howard mumbled under his breath, eyes still wide as he watched wear Vision had just phased from. “He sounded like Jarvis. I don’t know what I thought, I know you said he had…” Howard’s eyes glanced over to Rhodey in his chair and a sudden change came over him. He stood taller and the confusion and concern that had riddled him were pushed behind a wall of steel as he realized he had an audience to perform for. 

“Colonel Rhodes, I presume?”

“Yes, sir.”

“It’s an honor to meet you.”

Tony could tell that Rhodey wanted to scoff at the formal greetings but Rhodey had been way more polite and accustomed to this kind of social bs. 

“Oh, we’ve met before, summer of ‘85 I think? Right Tones?” Tony just shrugged. “Well, anyways, welcome back. You must be pretty proud of this genius, right?” he asked pointing towards Tony who groaned. Rhodey’s question seemed innocuous enough but Tony knew he was testing his father already. Only Rhodey would be in full defensive mode after mere introductions.

Howard seemed to sense this as well and looked from Rhodey to Tony and back again. “I am,” he offered genuinely enough.

Rhodey accepted this for now. 

Thankfully Pepper must have still been keeping an eye on their conversation because she made her way over to the group with her wine glass and a smile.

“Rhodey!” she called as she reached them.

“Hey, Pep,” Rhodey smiled and immediately opened his arms to her and she leaned in to hug him tightly. 

“You look good.”

“Thanks, I feel good being back with my family.”

“Ohhh is that Mama Rhodes’ peanut butter fudge?” Pepper asked reaching out to take the tin from Tony’s hands but he quickly snatched it away, holding it close to his chest. 

“Oh no you don’t, this is all mine.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Well, hey, dinner is done, anyways. Maria is pulling the lasagna out of the oven now so come on in before this one stakes claim on all of that food too,” she joked and nudged Tony with her shoulder. 

“Oh please, who had three plates the other night?” he asked, pinching her side in retaliation.

“Hey, all I had that day was a granola bar while we tried to smooth that product launch out with the Tokyo offices. You try doing what I do.”

“I did and I hated it, that’s why I gave it to you remember?”

“Oh, right,” she grinned playfully. “Come on guys let’s eat.” Pepper leaned forward and captured Tony’s lips against hers, softly placing a gentle kiss upon them, a dopey smile that Tony was sure he reflected, on her face as she pulled away and turned back to the dining area. 

Rhodey looked at Tony with a smug expression while Howard stood awkwardly between the two of them, his eyebrows shot all the way up to his hairline in surprise. He turned his lips down in amusement and whistled lightly as he nodded his head. 

“Congratulations, son,” he said with amusement and patted Tony’s arm as he shuffled passed him. 

Tony watched Howard go and glanced down at his arm where he’d been patted. 

“I knew you were holding out on me.”

“Oh, hush.” Tony mumbled a little embarrassed now. 

“Did I hear Pepper say, this is your mom’s lasagna?”

“It is.”

“Yeah this is much better than takeout.”

“I’m telling Mama Rhodes you prefer my Mom’s lasagna.”

“Not if you expect anymore peanut butter fudge you won’t.”

Rhodey and Tony made their way to the dining area continuing their teasing the entire way. Maria turned towards their laughter as they approached and immediately stood from her seat. 

Tony had told her who was coming today and explained Rhodey’s accident to her, knowing she had always been fond of his best friend so she wouldn’t be caught off guard. It still didn’t stop the obvious emotions from showing on her face anyways, her eyes watered slightly and Tony worried Rhodey might take it the wrong way mistaking it for pity, but this was Rhodey, and he always seemed to understand what people really meant as he smiled back at her as well.

“Mrs. Stark.”

“James,” she said and leaned down and hugged him against her. “It’s so good to see you again. Thank you for making sure to keep this one in line for me while I was away.”

“It’s a tough job but someone had to do it.”

“Don’t I know it?”

“Hey, ma, I’m going to take Rhodey to his room real quick, long flight you know, and then we’ll be out to eat, okay?” Tony interjected.

“Of course, darling. Take your time. I’ll fend off the wolves,” she joked motioning to Howard and Pepper as they debated the merits of a middle piece of the lasagna with a corner piece.

“Tones, would you mind?” Rhodey said a little embarrassed, making a motion to the handles on the wheelchair and crossing his arms in front of himself.

“No problem, I’ve gotcha buddy.” He sat down the tray of peanut butter fudge and Lila’s drawings on the table and came back to steer his friend.

Once more the pair set off down the hallway, this time to the resident quarters. Rhodey’s room was a few doors down from the Starks and directly across from the stairs leading to Tony’s suite. 

“Wow. That was...something else,” Rhodey said as soon as they were out of earshot.

“Intense right?” 

“A bit. And you’ve been dealing with this for a couple weeks now?”

“Yep.”

“No wonder you look like shit. How has that gone, for real?”

“About what you’d expect. Mom has been great. Howard a little less so, but he is trying, I think. That’s what Pepper keeps telling me, he says he’s trying. It has definitely not been easy though. We’ve had a few fights.”

Rhodey nodded along sympathetically. “Well, being stuck in here for a few weeks with Howard I’m surprised you’re not constantly at each other’ throats. Who all knows?”

“You. Happy. Peter, because he’s too smart for his own good.”

Tony wheeled Rhodey to a stop in front of his door and Rhodey placed his palm on the biometric pad and it immediately lit up green and the door opened for him.

“You know if Ross ever found out about this…”

“I know. Why do you think I haven’t been anywhere in weeks?”

“I thought you were hiding from the UN council.”

“Pft. They don’t scare me.”

“Yeah but Ross…”

“I’m working on getting him out of the picture.”

“Good. Still though, maybe you should think about getting out of the compound for a few hours. Might help to ease the tensions a bit.”

“I can’t just leave them here, Rhodey.”

Rhodey shrugged his shoulders. “Take ‘em with you.”

Tony sighed and flopped down on Rhodey’s bed. “Weren’t you just saying they can’t be seen?”

“So, don’t be seen. I’m just saying, maybe a little road trip will be good. I don’t think I even want to know what happened to them, but whatever it was I’m sure that they must have been pretty cooped up. Let them stretch their legs a bit, discreetly. Take Pepper as a buffer.”

“I don’t know Rhodey. I’ll think about it.”

“Fair enough. Now what’s the real reason you had to bring me to my room before dinner? Have you missed my charming personality that much?” he said leaning forward to nudge at Tony’s leg.

“Please, platypus, you missed your chance, I am in a monogamous relationship now,” he smiled, coming back to himself and rising from the bed. 

He disappeared into Rhodey’s closet for a brief moment before returning with a crudely wrapped gift in his hands. He didn’t have actual wrapping paper of course so he and DUM-E had to settle for using a roll of heavy kraft paper he used sometimes for projects.

Rhodey looked at the wrap job skeptically.

“DUM-E was in charge of wrapping.”

“Ah. Sure he was.” Rhodey carefully teared away at the paper from wherever there was a break in the tape, and yeah okay, maybe Tony would have to cut back on DUM-E’s taping enthusiasm next time but it was all worth it as the paper began to fall away and Rhodey’s expression shifted from amusement to something more serious, his brow furrowing.

“What is this?” he asked quietly.

Tony knelt before him, tossing aside the scraps of paper that remained. “Now, it’s just a prototype, and it hasn’t been tested beyond basic functionality with myself, but in theory this is what I am going to use to get you walking again, pal.”

Rhodey nodded his head slowly and brought his hand up to cover his mouth. He cleared his throat before he spoke, emotions hanging heavily still in his tone. “This isn’t gonna like, send me flying backwards into the ceiling like your iron man boots is it?”

Tony laughed, feeling a little choked up himself as his friend turned the prosthetic over in his hands, examining the little components. Rhodey was an engineer too, he knew exactly what he was looking at. “No, at least I don’t think so. No thrust capacity in this baby but I can always add it into later models if you want.”

A single tear spilled over Rhodey’s eye as he laughed and quickly wiped it away. “You crazy bastard,” he mumbled affectionately and opened his arms back up to pull Tony into another patented Rhodes almost bearhug. 

“Welcome home, Rhodey.”


	17. The Long Island Mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guys believe it? I got this baby out on time!! *does a happy dance* There's a lot more angsty kind of things in this one? Or at least I thought there was, so sorry not sorry?
> 
> As always thank you for the continual love and support from readers new and old. You guys give me so much to look forward to every single week and I love hearing what you think about the story and the characters. It's such a pleasure to write for you all. 
> 
> Here is nearly 8k of content, I hope it helps get you through these crazy times even just for a little while. Be smart, Stay Safe! I love you guys! Be sure to tell me what you think in the comments down below! <3

"Okay, that’s the last one,” Tony said, tightening the last strap for the braces around Rhodey’s thigh. He stood up from the bench and clapped his hands together in nervous anticipation. They had just finished with Rhodey’s normal physical therapy exercises and today was the first real trial as to whether his and Dr. Cho’s work had paid off and his body was thrumming with energy. 

“Hey Tones...listen this is just the first trial. Don’t freak out if it doesn’t work,” Rhodey tried to speak reassuringly, but his own trepidation showed through his words, voice trembling just a notch. 

“Me freak out? Who do you think you’re talking to, honeybear? I am the epitome of cool, calm, 

and collected.” 

Rhodey barked out a laugh. “Yeah, sure. Help me up?”

Tony leaned forward and clasped his hand in Rhodey’s, the older man using his momentum and Tony’s strength to push forward and up onto his feet. Rhodey wobbled in Tony’s grasp, clutching at his forearm, Tony all the while mumbling a steady mantra of, “I’ve gotcha, I’ve gotcha. You’re good. I’ve gotcha.”

“You good?” Tony asked, once Rhodey seemed to stabilize and gain solid ground beneath his feet.

Rhodey took a deep breath and pulled back from Tony, releasing his grasp on his shoulder, but keeping their hands together. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“Alright, I’m going to pull back a bit, the braces have got you, it’s all up to your muscle memory now.”

“Right.” Rhodey nodded his head and Tony took small steps backwards, letting his friend adjust to holding most of his weight while also steering him towards the double bars he would use to power him forward until he gained familiarity with the braces. 

Rhodey took his free hand and leaned forward, stretching out to grip the bar on his left. He grasped the cool metal and then nodded at Tony, and Tony gently released his other hand and stepped away. He reached out and gripped the right bar in his hand, both hands now firmly holding his position up. With one more encouraging look from Tony he stood ramrod straight, head held high and envisioned what he was going to do, put one step in front of the other, reach the end of the rails, turn around and start again.

The braces whirred and creaked as Rhodey’s right knee twitched and then slowly bent and moved forward of its own accord, taking a perfect single step forward. Rhodey’s eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open as he looked down in amazement. Tony continued to hold his breath as soon Rhodey’s left leg moved forward and then the right again, slowly moving forward as his friend gripped the bar and shuffled forward. It took a few minutes for Rhodey to get the hang of it, sometimes a few minutes passing between steps but Tony just offered words of encouragement and waited patiently, following each small step with a step of his own.

The movement was taxing, even with the braces. Small beads of sweat formed over Rhodey’s brow once he hit the halfway point, but he refused to take a break, and pushed through the rigorous movements. 

“Okay, talk to me about something, whatever you want, just talk,” Rhodey grunted out as he took another painstaking step forward.

“Yeah, sure, let’s see…” Tony began, racking his brain for what best to catch Rhodey up with. “Okay, so T’Challa told me this morning that we were finally able to broker a house arrest agreement for Barton and that giant guy from the airport. So, Clint should be on his way home as we speak and the other guy was apparently working with Hank Pym who is none too happy to have someone in one of his suits involved in international headlines, so I’m not sure that’s a better alternative to his cozy room on the raft.”

“No kidding,” Rhodey huffed as he continued down the walkway. “Don’t let you dad hear talks about Hank Pym. Didn’t they have a pretty big beef before he….you know.”

“I almost want to drop that nugget of knowledge just to drive him a little crazy.”

“I thought you wanted to make peace?”

“Yeah, except it’s my right as his son to be a pain in the ass too, otherwise what’s the point?”

Rhodey turned to Tony and laughed, breaking his concentration slightly and causing him to overcorrect his movements and stumble forward. He fell to one knee and Tony rushed to the other side of the bar to assist him but Rhodey just waved him away and gripped the bar again, pulling himself back up into a standing position.

“You good?”

“Yeah, just lost my balance for a sec.”

“Wanna take a break?”

“Nah.”

“You already did your other PT, it’s okay to be tired or hurting. You don’t want to overextend yourself.”

“I’ve got it,” Rhodey finally said in his militaristic no nonsense voice, shutting down any of Tony’s other concerns. Tony held his hands up in surrender and backed away slowly. Rhodey sighed and swiped at the sweat on his face, feeling a little bad for snapping. “Sorry. Maybe some water?”

“Sure,” Tony said and darted towards their workout gear, grabbing one of the cold waters and twisting the cap off for Rhodey.

Rhodey accepted it gratefully and took several deep gulps.

“How does it feel? Is the movement natural enough? It’s just the prototype so I can add in anything that you can think of. Some cup holders maybe?” Tony smiled as Rhodey grinned around the water bottle. 

“Some cup holders would be nice. Maybe some air conditioning too,” Rhodey motioned to the sweat spots forming on his clothing from the exertion of reteaching his body to walk.

“You got it, pal, drawing the schematics up already,” Tony joked, pointing to his head.

“I want to finish,” Rhodey said seriously and Tony nodded along and gave Rhodey his space again, holding onto the half drunk water bottle. “So, just how much does Howard and them know about you and the world these days?”

“Pfft. Apparently Howard got a crash course in Google their first night here. He knows just about everything, at least what the media knows. I...did tell him about Obie.”

Rhodey turned to face him, his expression morphing into one of gentle concern. “All of it?”

Tony shrugged. “He asked. So, we sat down with a drink and I told him the whole sordid tale of intrigue and betrayal. To his credit, he seemed upset, like he actually cared. It was strange, like something out of the Twilight Zone.”

“Tones, your entire life is like an episode of the Twilight Zone, no offense, man.”

“And here you are, right smack in the middle of it, platypus.”

“Well, every episode has that one normal person in the middle of it all, I figure that’s me. What about your, Mom?”

Tony hummed. “I’m not sure what she knows. Howard told her about Obie, I know that much, and sometimes she looks like she wants to ask me questions and then she just changes the subject to something else.”

“What about Jarvis?”

“No, definitely not,” Tony answered quickly, swallowing the lump that always formed when he thought of his old father figure. 

“Sorry,” Rhodey said, remembering just how delicate a subject the butler was. 

Finally he came to the end of the rails and smiled triumphantly, sighing and slowly lowering himself to the ground to rest. Tony offered him the water bottle again and he drank it completely in a couple more sips. Tony came to sit beside him and made no mention when Rhodey leaned part of his weight against Tony’s side, still taking deep breaths to calm his heart rate.

“I’ve been meaning to tell you that I’m sorry, for not believing you,” Rhodey said after several moments of silence. 

Tony’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Sorry for not believing what?”

“That day when we went to identify the bodies. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you said that wasn’t your mother. If you had been given a little support then maybe we could have found them sooner.”

“Don’t,” Tony said, already shaking his head as Rhodey’s regrets poured out. “Don’t do that. There was no way we could have really known, trust me, I tried. You were there for me and you stayed with me during that time though. I can’t ask for any better than that.”

Rhodey offered a tentative smile that didn’t really reach his eyes but he seemed to accept Tony’s words for now. Tony lifted himself into a crouch and offered Rhodey his hand, pulling him up with him when he stood. Rhodey groaned a bit but once he found himself back on his own feet he leaned forward and caught Tony in a hug and just held him there for a few minutes, Tony’s own arms moving to wrap around him too.

Suddenly, there was a pounding noise on the glass of the front door, an older gentleman with white hair and sunglasses stood peering inside, his black hat with a slice of pizza on it tipping off his head as he pressed towards the glass.

“I have a pizza delivery for…” he pulled back from the glass, looked at the receipt for clarification and then pressed back against the glass, “Tony Stank? Is that you?”

Rhodey’s face instantly lit up in glee and Tony knew that there was no way in hell that he would be living this one down anytime soon. 

“Yes! This is Tony Stank, right here! Thank you for that. You’re never living that down by the way,” Rhodey grinned and grabbed back a hold of the bars, turning to walk the other direction. 

Tony quickly took care of the pizza, letting the delivery man know very clearly that his name was STARK, not that it mattered now that the damage had been done. He brought the pizzas and set them down inside on the bench, returning to help Rhodey on his lap back to the end. When he finished he sat him down on his wheelchair and started to work removing the braces.

“I was thinking of taking your advice and going on a little field trip to Long Island,” Tony said quietly as he removed the straps. 

“Long Island?” Rhodey echoed with an inquiring brow.

“I figured that they might like to retrieve some personal items. Plus I never go there, there won’t be anyone to notice us and the old folks get out for some air, it’s a win all around.” He kept his head tucked down as he worked so he wouldn’t catch Rhodey’s eye and change his mind. Tony freed Rhodey’ legs of the braces and immediately turned his attention to their training gear, hooking a bag up over his shoulder.

“Are  _ you  _ going to be okay going back there?” Rhodey finally said when Tony had no choice but to turn his attention back towards him. 

“Yeah, it’ll be fine. Anyways, Pepper is coming too, so I figured we’d go after lunch. You’ll be napping and I’ll leave Happy behind to keep you company.”

Rhodey stared at him, taking in his mood and expressions, practically peering into his soul at this rate. “Just keep your phone on and call me if you need me.” 

“You got it,” Tony agreed easily.

Rhodey still seemed a little unsure but he settled a little more in his chair. “I’m going to get a shower before lunch.”

“Sure, uh, do you need any help with that?” Tony still wasn’t quite sure what the boundaries were with Rhodey’s situation and while he trusted that his friend wouldn’t hesitate to ask for help, he also knew that Rhodey could be just as hard headed as he was.

Rhodey just laughed. “This isn’t spring break ‘87 when you were trying to sober me up with cold water. I can manage.”

“Maybe I just wanted to see the uptick in all of your rippling upper body muscles,” Tony winked and picked up the pizzas, moving towards the kitchen with Rhodey wheeling behind him.

“I’m telling Pepper.”

* * *

The tinted glasses sat open and mocking Howard at the foot of his bed.

He was all alone in his room, Maria having finally disappeared somewhere with Pepper after having spent the last couple of days glued to his side, post time warp induced migraine. A small black notebook was open beside him with scrawling notes inside about how the glasses worked and what he could do the next time he used them, because he  _ would  _ use them again, there was no doubt. Howard’s curiosity was infinite and it often had gotten him into trouble, especially in his younger days. 

Part of him still screamed to return the glasses or at least ask Tony about them but these glasses felt important and he wanted the opportunity to figure out the technology on his own. It might even be the best way to start reconnecting with Tony, if he could see for himself again how it all went so wrong. One of Howard’s theories was that the glasses were memory based, given the migraine hangover location. Maybe if he found the right memory he could practice what he would say to Tony if he wasn’t so damn scared, without any of the negative ramifications of saying the wrong things and making things even worse.

He reached for the glasses, turning them over in his hands, still amazed at the sheer power of the technology in such an unassuming object. His mind cycled through several memories but none of them seemed exactly right to test his theory. The clearest image he could remember was right before he and Maria had been taken. Tony was asleep on the couch wearing that silly Santa hat probably after sneaking in the house at some ungodly hour. Howard had been in a hurry that morning already knowing that they’d have to stop by Shield for the serum before they could go on an overdue vacation. He and Tony bickered, Maria’ own patience with him was thin..but he remembered that song she had played on the piano, one of his favorites. 

Howard sighed and steeled himself for whatever was to come next, opening the glasses and turning them towards his face to slide on…

“Hey, Howard?” Tony called, knocking on the shut door three times in quick succession. 

“Shit,” Howard mumbled and quickly shoved the frames into the side table and grabbed a magazine off of the stack that had found a home there. He had asked Pepper for reading material on SI over the years and boy had she delivered. Several stacks of magazines had appeared one day and he slowly was making his way through them all. He supposed he could have just used the internet but there was just something grounding about using physical media. 

He opened the magazine to a random page and tried his best to sound nonchalant. “You can let him in, Friday.”

He heard the keypad beep on the other side as Friday accepted his vocal authorisation. A moment later the door cracked open and Tony stepped just inside the door. Howard turned his attention to him expectantly, his heart hammering at how close he had been to being caught. 

“Pizza is here. I was just letting you know,” Tony said, shifting about awkwardly. They still hadn’t really cleared the air since the lab blow up and their interactions since had been stilted and short, another three steps taken back in their ever changing dynamic.

“You’re going to make your mother crazy ordering pizza all the time,” Howard tried to joke.

“Yeah, when I left her I think she was wiping the grease off with a napkin and cutting it with a fork and knife.”

A memory suddenly lighted in Howard’s mind after having spent the morning focusing on the past. Tony was young, probably a year or two away from boarding school, and they had been roped into one of Maria’s charity galas where the cost of the plate of dinner far exceeded the meager rations and Howard always found himself sick from hunger as the night would inevitably drag on for hours. To combat the hunger pains he knew to load up first.

Howard smiled, lost in thought. “Do you remember that one gala your mother drug us to, where we stopped and got pizza at Fazio’s in Brooklyn?”

Tony’s face scrunched up but he moved further in a couple paces so Howard too that as a sign to continue. 

“We always got so hungry at those galas so we ordered a whole pizza and ate the entire thing ourselves, plus some breadsticks. God you were like a bottomless pit and I kept worrying you would spill sauce on your shirt and your mother would have a coronary,” he laughed, shaking his head. “Then we got to the gala, fashionably late of course, and we sat down to this meal, scallops and some other nonsense and you took one bite and just hurled. I guess you were too full and just there were half digested pepperoni everywhere. Your mother had me in the dog house for a week when she found out why it happened but it was completely worth it.”

He turned towards Tony again and the younger man had his arms crossed and was biting his lower lip. “No,” he responded quietly, averting his eyes to the floor, “I don’t remember that. I remember Jarvis taking me home and giving me a bath. He stayed with me in my room the whole night because I was scared of getting sick again, even though he had to sleep in that uncomfortable desk chair. I remember you and Mom fighting and after that you went on a business trip. That’s what I remember.”

Tony didn’t speak with any kind of anger or malice in his voice, if anything he sounded sad and longing. Howard hadn’t remembered that part of the story. 

“I’m sorry,” Howard responded solemnly, the laughter stolen from his chest and replaced by a heavy weight. 

Tony just shrugged indifferently and finally looked at Howard. “What on earth are you reading?”

Howard had almost forgotten about the magazine he still held up against his chest. He took a quick glance at the cover and realized that Tony was on the cover, the headline mentioning the future of sustainable energy. 

“Needed reading material,” he shrugged back. 

“Right...well anyways, lunch. Oh, and we’re going to take a little field trip afterwards, let you and Mom stretch your legs and get out a little bit.”

Howard just nodded along dumbly and Tony turned and left the room. Howard turned and stared at the bedside drawer and suddenly the only thing that he wanted to do was go back to the past and sit up in his son’s room all night in the uncomfortable desk chair. 

* * *

Lunch passed thankfully without incident with Rhodey and Pepper there to help diffuse some of the lingering awkwardness between Tony and Howard. Afterwards Happy brought around an SUV with the tinted windows and passed the keys off to Tony. 

“You sure you don’t want me to drive you?” Happy asked.

“Yeah I’m sure. Just a little field trip, we’ll be back before you know it.” Tony said as he got into the driver’s seat with Pepper beside him as his parents chattering amongst themselves as they climbed into the backseat. Tony had told them to dress as casually as possible, not that anyone was really on the lookout for Howard and Maria Stark lookalikes but better safe than sorry. Tony wasn’t sure that he had ever seen his mother in blue jeans in his entire life and he had to remember to take a picture.

“Is this really necessary in the car?” Howard asked, scrunching up the ball cap in his hands. “The windows are tinted.”

Tony had to hold back a grin. “Totally one hundred percent necessary, you never know what people can see when you’re sitting at a traffic light.” 

Tony heard Howard sigh and watched through the rear view mirror as his father, a lifelong dedicated Yankees fan, placed the hat of his rivals, the Boston Red Sox, on his head grumbling the entire time. Tony smirked. He never took any sport seriously like his father who had owned box seats for years, even taking him and Jarvis to a game or two, but while at MIT he and Rhodey had been to enough games at Fenway that Tony had taken a shine to the Boston team, to Howard’s great distress. The summer he came home from school in a Red Sox jersey, Howard just about disowned him and young Tony considered it a win in his never ending quest of rebellion.

The drive to the city and subsequently across to Long Island was long and traffic filled, Tony now remembering why he always preferred Happy crisscrossing through the streets or even better, just being able to fly above all the congestion in his armor. 

Pepper kept up a steady stream of conversation with everyone, Tony pitching in to contribute as needed in response.

“The skyline has changed a bit,” Howard spoke as the newly reminted Stark Tower came into view.

“Thought you’d like having your name in the sky?” Tony asked.

Howard chuckled looking at the tower. “Who said I don’t? Incredible design.”

Pepper looked over to Tony and smiled, placing a reassuring hand over his as he swelled with pride. Stark Tower was their baby and with the Avengers vacating and heading to upstate New York they once again formed it into their Stark Industries headquarters, but still kept their penthouse and the several levels beneath for personal use. Maybe they’d end up back in the city one day.

It was late afternoon by the time they fought their way through traffic and arrived at their destination, heading down the private road Tony hadn’t been through in years. He stopped at the front entrance gate which looked mostly the same as it had in the early 90’s aside from the upgraded security pad, entered the five digit code and the gate swung open for them to enter the circular driveway.

The house stood as grand and imposing as it ever had, the grounds and building still meticulously maintained daily by a staff of landscapers and house cleaners. Four pillars stood dramatically beneath the pediment that helped frame the mansion’s entrance, windows with curtains drawn across nearly all available space. 

“Home, sweet, home,” Tony whispered, turning off the car engine. Pepper’s hand was still in his and she squeezed it again in support before exiting the vehicle.

Howard and Maria followed in almost a sense of awe, the first time being back at their actual home in over twenty years. Maria was openly emotional, overwhelmed by the familiarity and comforts of the sprawling building. Her hydrangea hedges as beautifully in bloom and maintained as the last time that she saw them. She reached out and touched one, feeling it’s softness against her hand and smelling the sweetly scented fragrance with a sigh. 

Howard wasn’t nearly so sentimental, at least not for the outside of his home. It was what lay inside, his bedroom, his lab, his  _ things _ . 

Tony slid out of the SUV and made his way across the cobblestone drive and the singular step to the door. Like with the entrance gate he had updated the home's security, instead of locks an unimposing biometrics pad had been installed on the solid mahogany entrance doors. A quick scan of his palm and the doors unlocked and he gently pushed them open. 

“I uh, kept everything the same...after...except for a few important furniture pieces I took with me to California. Everything else though...I just left. Upgraded the security and an appliance here or there,” Tony spoke quietly as they stepped into the entryway. 

It felt a little strange not to have Jarvis here opening the door. His presence hung heavy in the home, as had the memory of his lost parents, one of the many reasons he rarely came back here. It was sometimes too much to face. Now it was even more surreal to have his parents standing back in this entryway, just feet away from the room they had last been together in 1991. 

“So, how about I give you guys some space and we’ll all reconvene later yeah? You can grab anything you want and we’ll bring it back to the compound.”

Howard immediately wanted to scatter down to the basement, his lab and sanctuary but given Maria’s more vulnerable state at the moment, the shock of being back in their family home hitting her all at once, he figured it was best to stick with her for now and wax poetic with his own things later. He grasped her hand in his and used the other to finally snatch the Red Sox cap off of his head and crookedly hang it on Tony’s own head as Maria led him towards the curved staircase leading towards the home's bedrooms. 

Tony snatched the cap off his own head and ran a hand through his mussed hair before flipping it backwards instead because why else? It drove Howard crazy. 

“So,” Pepper began, her shoes clicking against the polished floors as she soaked in the property. “This is where you used to disappear to every December, huh?”

“Pretty much,” Tony shrugged and leaned back against the door. For years when the anniversary of his parents' deaths came around he took a little vacation to Long Island, alone, unless you counted his friends Jack Daniels and Jim Beam, and in the very early years some illicit drug or another and spent the next two or three days completely wasted. It was his way of coping. Not exactly the proper or best way to cope but it would take him years to begin figuring that out. After Afghanistan he stopped making the annual trip and spent his time with Pepper or Rhodey instead if he was around, alcohol and drugs giving away instead to junk food and action movie binges. 

“I would have come with you, even then. All you had to do was ask.” 

Tony smiled gratefully but shook his head. “I wouldn’t have been very good company.”

“You didn’t have to be.” She admitted honestly, keeping her eyes locked with his so he could see the truth in her words. 

“Well...now that you are here, there is one thing that any guy would like to do with their girlfriends and that would be showing you my bedroom,” he winked playfully, trying to divert her attention from the serious topics. He was already feeling antsy being back in this house, he really wanted to make it through the day with his emotions intact.

“Why so you can show me your Captain America memorabilia?” she shot back making him instantly regret every telling her about that minor fascination growing up.

“Of course not. I wanted to show you my Star Wars collection instead.”

She rolled her eyes but they both started climbing the winding staircase anyways, Tony rambling on about anything he could think of, pointedly ignoring the door at the top of the staircase that belonged to Ana and Jarvis. They had had their own separate space on the grounds as well but more often than not had found it more convenient to be inside the mansion. 

Two doors down and across the hall from Jarvis' was Tony’s room.

“Are you ready for this?” He joked, one hand on the door knob.

“As I’ll ever be. There’s not going to be like decades old laundry and coffee cups strewn about will there?”

“Have a little more faith in me than that, I’ve obviously had a cleaning service over these years,” he spoke with mock offense and opened the door. 

The bedroom may as well have been the master of its size and grandeur. Like most of Tony’s homes, the bedroom had plenty of windows, these overlooked the backyard and pool area. The bedding on the large king sized bed had clearly been updated from 1991 but everything else seemed to be stuck in a time freeze. 

A half finished model of something sat on a desk in the corner, pieces and tools still strewn about like Tony might come back at any time to finish his work. True to his word there were a couple vintage Star Wars posters framed and hanging on the walls and even a Millennium Falcon model.

Atop an antique looking dresser were old magazines, mostly Popular Mechanic, and some other odds and ends. The dresser mirror had a singular picture tucked into the grooves of a very young Rhodey with an even younger, shaggy headed Tony, at MIT. 

Tony reached out to grab the photo and put it in his pocket. “Blackmail,” he shrugged at the look Pepper gave him. 

“So, this is where you grew up then?” she asked, running a hand over the by now ancient computer on an opposite desk. 

“No. I grew up in Andover at boarding school. This place was just a little stop in between to pass the time between semesters.” 

“That’s actually really sad,” Pepper said, settling at the foot of the bed. 

“Eh, well. Maybe a little but that’s my life,” he said, sitting beside her. “Hey, remind me to grab that Millennium Falcon for Peter. I think he’d get a kick out of it.”

“Tony,” Pepper spoke softly, in her serious voice and he snapped his complete attention to her. “Are you going to tell them about Jarvis?”

Tony froze. “What here? Now?”

“It’s as good a time as any. I saw your Dad’s face the other day when he heard Vision speak. I just think that they should hear about what happened and it’d be better to hear it from you then Howard’s internet prowling. It’s not like it was your fault, honey.”

Tony looked down at the carpeted floor, remembering that day he had just wanted to lay in bed and disappear after his parent’s deaths, until Jarvis came in and sat where Pepper was now, gently coaxing and soothing him. 

“I’m not making any promises,” he finally sighed. “It’s been a long week...month really...but I’ll try.”

“I wouldn’t ask for anything else,” she smiled and leaned forward to press a kiss to his cheek. “Now, why is it that most guys want to show girls their rooms?” she whispered into his ear and Tony’s eyes grew wide.

“Ms. Potts!” he shouted indignantly. “Are you trying to defile me in my childhood bedroom?”

“Maybe not so much defile as in a little light making out? Your parents are here, I figured you’d appreciate a little light thrill of being caught by your mother at any moment.”

“Pretty sure my mother has caught me, but in this particular case she might just throw us a condom and tell us to have fun, you’ve become quite the favorite person of hers, I think she might actually try to adopt you.”

“That would be unfortunate, because if we were siblings that would ruin any prospects of future grandchildren.”

“Future what now?” Tony asked, doing a comedic double take.

“Just shut up and kiss me before they find us,” she smiled and leaned in to meet him halfway.

* * *

They were found not much longer after that by an excitable Maria carrying a large box with a gleam in her eye. She said nothing of their red cheeks and slightly heavy breathing but she did smile a little bigger than normal and urged them to follow her down to the living room. 

Howard trailed after her mimicking that they could have shut the door but Tony just shrugged and pointed to Pepper as he continued on his way.

The box turned out to be full of all the most embarrassing childhood memorabilia that only a mother could possess. Old tiny blue onesies that smelled like the attic, a teddy that was ragged looking and missing an eye that he had simply named “Bear.” There weren’t many childish art projects or macaroni necklace type things as by the age of four he was already creating circuit boards, but there were some crudely made “robots” framed with whatever scraps he could get from Howard’s workshop. 

Then came the photo albums. 

Pepper oohed and ahhed at the appropriate pictures, newborn photos with Tony’s head full of hair even then, or running around with all diapers and clothing abandoned. Tony debated telling his mother that none of this was new for Pepper and about the time in 2000 when Pepper had to come fetch his half naked self from swimming in a public fountain before he got arrested. Pepper did get in a good ribbing about his bowl cut around the time he was first sent off for school and he vowed to email her own mother for incriminating photos. 

As the years in photographs drug on, Howard’s absences became more obvious, Jarvis taking his place at birthdays, or airport photos going to and from school for the year and they were even less frequent when he finally went away to MIT in 84’, the only real photos coming from galas they all attended together or whenever someone would write an article about them. 

It was obvious that Howard had begun to grow uncomfortable with his lack of inclusion but the photos didn’t lie. Tony hoped maybe it would be good for him now to see how life used to be for all of them. 

Then came the question that he had been avoiding. 

“What became of Jarvis and Ana, after?” Maria asked softly, her hand folded over the album on a picture of Jarvis and Ana with Tony after he had graduated from MIT. 

His eyes shot to Pepper’s and she nodded her head gently, encouraging him to speak. Howard now looked interested in the conversation again, sitting up in his chair and leaning forward towards Tony.

“It’s really not an exciting story. No one was kidnapped by Hydra or blown up by terrorists or anything…” he mumbled.

“Still...they were our oldest friends...I know your father especially would like to know,” Maroa spoke gently.

Tony sighed and looked to his father briefly and then back to his mother and Pepper, settling to gaze at some point just beyond Pepper’s shoulder. “Sure. Fine.”

“After your deaths...I didn’t handle it too well. Big surprise right? I let Obie talk me into going out to Malibu and making a fresh start but...I also let him get it into my head that I didn’t need Jarvis around anymore. He said I was too old for a pair of nursemaids and because I was an idiot I agreed with him, so I…” he took a steadying breath. “I fired him...told him to go back home because I didn’t need him anymore.”

“He didn’t even try to fight me, he just accepted it. So, he and Ana went back to London and I didn’t hear from them again until a couple years later, when Jarvis called and told me that he had pancreatic cancer, stage four, and he thought I should know. I was elbow deep in creating my first real artificial intelligence, but I dropped everything and got on a plane to see them. He looked good that first visit. He still seemed healthy and strong and he never said a word about any of the tabloids, just talked to me about my designs and SI and how I was doing.”

Tony shook his head in disbelief even now knowing that no matter what Jarvis had never been upset or angry with him. Instead he continued to only offer that same unconditional love that he always had. The room remained respectfully silent as he gathered his thoughts, his father’s mouth hidden behind his hand and his mother leaned towards him to place her hand on his back.

“Jarvis got worse each time I visited but then I got an idea and I started recording his voice. I implemented it into my AI system and thus JARVIS was reborn and kept our Jarvis’ voice immortalized forever. Jarvis was my AI like Friday is but he was always more. Through a very long list of events I’d rather not get into, JARVIS was implemented into Vision’s creation, thus the reason for your mix up with him the other day,” Tony explained, looking specifically at his father. “The real Jarvis died a couple days after JARVIS came online, on August 24th, 1994. I tried to get Ana to move back to the States but she wouldn’t leave him there alone, she said. Ana passed a little over a year later on September 30th, natural causes.”

The room remained quiet for a few more moments as the information sank in until Maria, ever the peacemaker, stood up and hugged him against her. 

“No matter what happened before, I’m glad that they still had you in the end,” she whispered. 

Tony was done shedding tears over the past but he thought he just might be able to right there in the safety of his mother’s arms, in the house that was so full of memories of Jarvis. Instead he swallowed them back, sniffing once and pulling away.

“I’m just gonna…” he began, standing up and pointing to the french doors leading out to the back deck. “Get some air.”

* * *

Howard watched his son disappear out onto the patio and his every instinct told him that he should probably follow him outside knowing that he shouldn’t leave him alone right now. He hadn’t been there for him in the past, that was abundantly clear, Jarvis often stepping in for him. Now Jarvis was gone and Hhoward was here and he wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice. 

“I’ll be right back,” he said, excusing himself and following the path Tony had taken. 

Tony was leaning forward on the deck rails, his head on his arms. Howard made sure to make noise as he opened and shut the doors, coming to a stop a few feet beside him. 

“What do you want?” Tony mumbled, not bothering to look up.

“Just wanted to make sure you were okay. And to thank you...for telling us what happened. I’m sure it was difficult for you,” Howard began cautiously.

“I’m fine.”

“Clearly,” Howard joked and leaned forward on his own arms and took in the view of the backyard and the many trees and flowers that were in bloom. The normally sparkling pool was all closed up but the small pond enclosure near Maria’s garden had a few fish swimming around and the little waterfall was trickling soothingly in the background. He hadn’t often stopped to take in the beauty of their home but it was overly apparent now against the backdrop of a setting sun. 

“It wasn’t your fault,” he finally said, after sifting through his words carefully. He perhaps knew best what Tony was feeling; that old Stark guilt resurfacing. 

“I know it wasn’t. I didn’t create cancer,” Tony continued to mumble into his sleeve.

“I meant when you sent them away. It wasn’t your fault, Obadiah manipulated you. He uh...used to say the same things to me, about Jarvis. Said it wasn’t right to have another man help raise my son, that he would turn you against me.”

Howard had Tony’s attention now, he lifted his head to look at him as he spoke. 

“I should have seen Obie for the jackal he was years ago but I was so blind, so stupid. My attention was constantly split a hundred different ways and I just let him swoop in and take advantage. That was my fault, and I own up to that. But you have nothing to be sorry for because Jarvis and Ana loved you like their own and I’m sure they understood what you were going through. They were a special group of people. We’re all better for having known them,” he finished, his voice hoarse and thick with emotion thinking of his best friend. 

“He loved you too,” Tony spoke quietly. “Anytime we fought...Jarvis would tell me that you did care but you just didn’t know how to show it to people. That you showed it in other ways, like when you took care of him and Ana after the war. I didn’t really believe him then, but I can kind of see what he was saying now. Thank you...Howard.”

Howard nodded his head and scooted a little closer, nudging Tony with his elbow. “Did Jarvis ever tell you about the time I purchased a flamingo named Bernard and they spent the rest of their lives as mortal enemies?”

* * *

It was night when they finally left the mansion that night, which was fine by Tony, they got to bypass the rush hour traffic in the city. 

After Howard regaled him with countless tales of Bernard VS Jarvis they had meandered inside and down to his father’s workshop, as pristine as the day he had left. Howard took the time to show him some of his old notes and schematics, bringing a handful with him to tinker with at the compound. They easily discussed engineering topics before heading out to the garage, Howard a little surprised to find his car collection still stored. 

“I couldn’t sell any of them. I just took the hot rod with me and kept the rest covered and maintained. Once we get everything figured out with you guys being alive and I have Ross off of my back, maybe you guys can come back here if you want. Food for thought anyways.”

Howard had seemed interested in the offer but the closer they got to the Compound the more relieved Tony felt that both of his parents  _ were  _ with him, under his roof and not anywhere else. He kind of hated himself for even suggesting their eventual need for independence, which was weird, considering he thought that he wouldn’t be able to get them out fast enough, and wasn't that a whole new can of worms that he was going to have to deal with. 

Overall, the little field trip had been good for everyone, his parents being able to get out and breath in the actual world and even retrieve some personal items, though his mother jokingly lamented the loss of her dresses with their shoulder pads. Pepper looked like she was about to have a heart attack when Maria had initially debated bringing the outfit along. 

They stopped for a bite to eat on the way home, Pepper having ordered take out from their favorite Tai restaurant. Afterwards Tony took a bit of a detour after to Queens to drop off the Millennium Falcon to Peter, but he ended up not being home, having spent the night with his friend Ted, so he left it in the care of his skeptical looking Aunt May, probably wondering why the hell Tony Stark was delivering Star Wars memorabilia to her nephew at ten at night. 

It was nearly midnight by the time they all made it back but Rhodey was up waiting for them anyways like the mother hen that he was. 

“Did I miss curfew?” Tony joked, as they all began to file into the Compound. 

“Always, you’re ground now.”

“You never were any fun, sourpatch. You wonder how you got these names.”

“Haha,” Rhodey mock laughed and wheeled along beside them. 

“No, really what are you doing up? Nap too long?”

Rhodey went serious for a moment and Tony suddenly felt concerned. “There’s something that I need to show you, Tones. I’d have put it in your office but well…” he nodded at his wheelchair and made his way towards his room.

“Hey, I’ll see you upstairs?” Tony said softly to Pepper as she looked back and forth between them concerned. 

“Yeah, of course. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I think he just misses me tucking him in,” he said and leaned in for a soft kiss. “See ya in a few.”

Tony headed down the hallway after Rhodey and followed him into his room, looking around like he expected someone to jump out at him from behind a door or something before his eyes settled on a large package on Rhodey’s bed. 

“This came for you while you were gone.”

“Oh, that’s no big deal. Probably just those replacement parts I ordered for the hot rod the other night. Oh, I almost forgot, check out this picture I found-”

“No, Tony, no. It’s not that.” Rhodey shook his head, his tone leaving no room for jokes or anything but his undivided attention.

“Then what is it?”

“Tones...this package is from your Aunt Peggy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *in my Brad Pitt voice* WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!?!?!


	18. The Box

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooooooooooooooo it's Thursday. Yep, you're not missing any days, I am just updating super late. I've had this half completed since Monday and this week has just been an exercise in anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and my anxiety has kind of been off the charts, and when that happens I can't write. I am doing MUCH better now, and was able to buckle down today and finish since I'm off work today. I was going to wait until Monday but I won't lie, I couldn't wait to hear from you guys and see what you think, it really is one of the best times of my week hearing from you all!!
> 
> I hope that this chapter is good, it was a little tough to write, anxiety not withstanding, for some reason the scenes weren't coming together as easily as they normally do. In the interim though I did end up writing an extremely sad way off in the future oneshot for Endgame with our 12.16 gang so I guess I had to get that sadness off my chest to sit and get this done. lol 
> 
> Thank you as always for the love and support. Enjoy my late offering and let me know what you think down in the comments below. <3 <3 <3

_ Washington D.C.  _

_ July 7th, 2015 _

To say that Tony Stark was having a rough couple of months would be the understatement of the century. He’d gone from hunting and destroying Hydra bases to creating the equivalent of Skynet, to destroying an entire city to save the world from the monster he created. Today, he had to testify before a special counsel of senators and representatives regarding what happened in Sokovia, seemingly for what felt like the millionth time. 

Funny how the government was always pulling his name card, and not any of the others on his team. But it was fine. Really. More than fine even. Tony was the best equipped to deal with politics and had assumed the role early on anyways. But maybe, just maybe he was still a little peeved that he was taking the full wrath of the government and the United Nations. He hadn’t been alone in his endeavor to create Ultron but Bruce had fucked off to god knows where, leaving Tony holding the bag, and the lawsuits, property damages, and general ill will of the public. 

If Tony had an approval rating he was pretty sure he was one wrong word away from the resurrection of public execution. 

Again though, he couldn’t blame Bruce. Tony had to poke and prod the scientist into joining his pursuits, despite providing clear reasoning as to why what they were trying to do was a bad idea. Tony wished he could have at least just talked to the man one more time before he vanished into thin air. He could really use the friendly support, and Bruce had always been his science bro, the only person in the world who possibly carried more self loathing than Tony himself, and could understand, even if not entirely agree with, why Tony had tried to make a successor for them all. 

No one else seemed to understand. 

Tony was tired. He loved helping people and he loved being Iron Man, but he was tired of the aftermath, the death tolls, the destruction. He was tired of bumping heads with Steve and letting Stark Industries work pile up while he worked constantly and relentlessly to fill the Avenger’s tall orders of gear and weaponry, always needing tuning and adjustments, upgrades and replacements. 

He wanted that quiet farm life that Barton had on the side. A quiet retreat to come back to everyday, where the only thing he had to worry about was whether or not he wore pants that day. And Pepper...she deserved that peace too. She had been working her ass off overtime to make sure SI continued smooth sailing despite an initial dip in the stock after it was revealed what had happened in Sokovia and why. She was fielding questions and helping him mobilize the Stark Relief teams. And how did he repay her? By arguing. Or worse, ignoring her. Drinking too much and sleeping too little, her concerns brushed away as he lied through his teeth and told her that he was okay. Even then, he knew he was losing her. 

That was part of the reason that he wasn’t quite ready to get on the jet and head home yet. He needed some time to clear his head and some space away from the rest of the world, so he found himself in front of his Aunt Peggy’s care home. 

Ever since his Aunt Peggy had been placed in a facility, he had always made a point to visit at least once a month and he was ashamed to admit that he hadn’t seen her since before the Ultron fiasco. Part of it was because he had been so busy, but another part of him knew it was because he was a coward, and at a time when everyone in the world’s opinion of him was so low, he really didn’t want to look at her and see that same disapproval. 

Today though he just needed her comfort no matter what she may think of his recent mess. He needed that familiarity, that last connection to his past and childhood, simpler times if it were to be believed, though nothing about his life had ever been simple.

“How is she doing today?” he asked, as he signed in to the front desk.

All of the care workers were used to Tony’s visits by now and were discreet, even if they weren’t though, they had all been slapped with NDA’s from the moment that he had even considered Aunt Peggy coming here for care. 

Though Tony and his cousin Sharon had conferred about it via the occasional text or email, Sharon who technically had power of attorney during these times, it had been his Aunt’s decision ultimately to enter the facility after the Alzheimer's diagnosis. Tony made sure to quietly foot the bill to lessen the strain on the Carter women, at a loss of anything else to do. Aunt Peggy had her own money of course, but the type of care that would be required at one of the top facilities in the country could have easily bled her dry within a few years' time. This was something easy, something that Tony was good at doing.

“She’s had a couple of really good days,” June, one of the nurses began, almost apologetically.

Tony felt a lump in his throat. “But not today?”

“You know how it is. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see you, she asked about you the other day.”

Tony nodded his head. “Wish me luck,” he said faking a grin and turned down to the corridor leading to Peggy’s room. 

The door was shut when he arrived and he loitered outside of it for a few moments, shuffling the suit jacket he held from arm to arm. He removed the cufflinks from his shirt and rolled up his sleeves feeling a little less oppressed now and loosened the tie that felt like it was choking him all through the hearing this morning. 

If Aunt Peggy didn’t remember who he was today, he told himself that it would be fine. Some anonymity, even in this form would be okay, a little painful, but he was used to her bad days by now and could still draw his comfort by just sitting with her. 

He knocked a couple times in quick succession and opened the door. 

The room was bathed in early afternoon sunlight, everything in the room was tidy and orderly, Peggy’s knickknacks and books adding a splash of her personality to the sterile room. Peggy sat in the middle of her bed, a vision even now, hair and make up as precise as ever, looking over some papers, reading glasses perched at the edge of her nose. She lifted her head up at the intrusion to look at him and a soft smile spread across her lips.

“It’s about time you showed up,” she spoke softly, her accent highlighting her words.

Maybe today was a good day after all.

Tony offered her a quick grin in return and stepped further into the room. “I’m sorry, I know it has been awhile. I’m sure you’ve seen a little bit as to why.” He indicated the television screen that was on but muted, showing highlights already of the hearing he had attended hours before, as he came to the side of her bed and offered her a hug which she accepted.

Some of his nervous energy began to dissolve as he was surrounded by the familiar embrace of his Aunt, and the smell of her perfume filled his nostrils. He was safe, he was loved. Peggy hadn’t turned him out as soon as he entered the room like he’d feared and he had to believe that everything would be okay.

Tony pulled back from her and tossed his suit jacket down at the end of the bed and sat down in the chair beside her bed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t come sooner, for what it’s worth.”

Peggy just shrugged the apology off. “I always expect for you to be in some kind of trouble, otherwise you just wouldn’t be Howard Stark.”

Tony’s stomach gave an awful lurch. 

“What?”

Peggy turned to look at him again, studying his face and features and Tony tried to reassure himself that maybe she had just had a slip of the tongue. Even on her worst days when she didn’t know who he was, she had never once called him Howard. 

“Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

“I’m fine,” he responded a little too quickly, and she continued to stare at him with open concern.

“Is everything okay at home? How are Maria and my godson doing?”

It wasn’t a slip. She really thought that he was Howard, who had been dead and buried for over twenty years. There was no way to really tell what year Aunt Peg thought she was in and he mentally cursed this awful disease that continued to steal away bits of his Aunt’s normally sharp mind. 

He lowered his head in his hands and rubbed at his temple, feeling the first signs of a headache coming on. 

“I know that look,” Peggy said, and reached her hand out to rub his shoulder. “Have you and Tony been fighting again?”

Tony felt like he wanted to bolt from the room and never look back but he didn’t want to leave his aunt in a state of alarm, and besides he couldn’t quite force his legs up beneath him. Instead he felt himself slump forward on Peggy’s bed in defeat. He was so tired and he could feel the tears stinging behind his eyelids, having been building for weeks and months now, the final straw was broken. His body began to shudder as he cried silently into his palms , Peggy’s hand never leaving him, rubbing reassuring circles into his skin.

“He loves you, Howard. One day when he is older he will understand you, and he’ll see how much alike you really are. Maybe in the meantime be a little kinder to each other, yeah? He loves you so and I know how much you love him underneath that layer of being a stubborn arse.”

Tony couldn’t help the gasping laugh that choked out between his tears, as he sniffed and wiped at his eyes. He had been told there was no point in correcting Peggy’s case of mistaken identity, it could only prove to make her agitated and put her in a worse place, so sometimes it was better to just play along.

“I think it’s too late for all of that, Peg,” he responded, using his father’s moniker for his oldest friend. 

“You think that now, but when have I ever led you astray in our many years of association?”

Tony looked up at her and smiled. “Never.”

“Then believe me when I say that whatever you are dealing with now, will turn out okay in the end.”

Perhaps not with Howard, that opportunity was long gone and buried but perhaps Peggy wasn’t entirely wrong. He had come here for comfort and she was still offering it up even if she didn’t get his name right or know the situation. She knew that he was hurting and she sought to help him and maybe that was enough for now.

“Maybe you have a point,” he responded with a weary sigh. 

“Of course I do.”

“What are you working on today?” He pointed a finger to the old Shield files sprawled out around her like she was working on an active case.

“We believe that Hydra has a growing foothold in Russia, so I was mapping out possible base locations. I don’t know what they are planning but I am sure it’s nothing good.”

“It never is,” Tony agreed. 

“You know,” Peggy began, looking back at him, face serious and contemplative, “a simple ‘I love you and I’m sorry’ would do wonders for you and Tony.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.”

“You’d better. Can you hand me that file over there?”

They “worked” for the next few hours, it kept Tony’s mind occupied and Peggy happy as she went into the details of locations and suspects that Tony just went along with. Finally though he couldn’t delay his return home any longer. He already had several missed calls from Pepper and he was sure Steve was waiting for a debrief on what happened at the hearing, as if he couldn’t see it all on the news himself. 

When he stood to leave, Peggy wrapped him in another fierce hug and patted his back, she may have been sick but she was anything but frail, and she smiled brightly at him one last time. 

“Remember. Everything is going to be alright.”

He faked a smile and some confidence when he replied, “Of course it is,” but knowing it was all for show. The Avengers had already been fraying apart and the distance between them all only seemed to grow wider, as did the chasm between him and Pepper.

That was the last time he visited his Aunt Peggy.

* * *

“Are you ever going to open it or do you hope that by silently staring at it for a few more hours that you might will it open with your mind?” Pepper asked, refilling Tony’s coffee and sinking into the leather couch beside him, bringing her legs up behind her to sit on as she took a drink of her own coffee.

It had been a day since the mysterious appearance of Peggy Carter’s box and since then, despite the desire of everyone who knew about wanting to know what was inside, Tony had adamantly decided to do the opposite. He carried it with him from room to room like someone might try to take it and open it themselves. 

Rhodey said to give it time and Pepper knew that was true as well, but her curiosity was starting to get the better of her. 

“Not possible,” Tony simply said, accepting the coffee and taking a sip before going back to his phone and pretending to scroll through his emails. Pepper knew he was pretending because when did Tony ever read his emails, and he very obviously kept looking up to the box on the coffee table before shifting back. 

“Just open it,” Pepper said gently, laying her head on his shoulder. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

“First of all, that is always what someone says in the movies before the worst actually happens and I’m not sure that I really want to find out what that would mean for me.”

“And second of all?”

“I don’t want to.”

Pepper groaned. “You’re acting like there’s a severed head in there or something.”

“There could be. Aunt Peggy was a dangerous woman.”

“Did she often mail you severed heads?”

“Not in recent memory.”

“Then I’m sure we’re fine. What if whatever is in there is time sensitive?”

“Well, then I’d say arriving almost a month after her death would have put a damper on that.”

Well, he had her there. 

“Why do you really keep putting it off?” she asked gently this time, turning to study his face. 

For a moment she thought that he was actually going to tell her. His dark eyes narrowed and his jaw twitched. He turned his attention from the box to Pepper and opened his mouth as if to speak, but she saw the moment that he shut down entirely.

“I’ve just been busy,” he said popping up from the couch and pocketing his phone. “Have you seen, Mom? I’ve got something for her.”

“This is deflecting you know that right?”

“If I acknowledged that you’re right, will you tell me where she’s at?”

“Depends, what else do I get out of it?”

“The satisfaction of knowing you’re right?”

“I already know that.”

Tony pursed his lips and pretended to think on it for a moment, before letting out a “ah” and bending forward and capturing Pepper’s lips with his own for a sweet, slow kiss. He pulled away gently and gave her the biggest puppy dog eyes that she couldn’t help but to laugh and lean forward for another kiss. 

“She’s in her room. Don’t think that we won’t talk about this later,” she whispered softly and hugged him close.

“Then I’ll have to bring out the big guns to get out of that one,” he said pulling back and wagging his eyebrows suggestively. 

Pepper rolled her eyes and pushed him away, taking another sip of her coffee. Tony drained his mug of coffee and sat it down, grabbing the box to carry with him down the hall. 

What was she going to do with that man?

* * *

“Knock, knock,” Tony said, pushing the half opened door open the rest of the way. 

He opened to Howard sitting on the bed, notes and papers sprawled out all over the bed. At Tony’s intrusion he glanced up briefly in acknowledgement before continuing to write furiously in a small black notebook. 

“Stroke of inspiration?” he inquired, raising an eyebrow. Howard’s strokes of ingenuity weren’t unlike Tony’s own, though he preferred a keyboard, as his hands would end up cramping too much when he got inspiration away from technology. 

“Something like that,” Howard mumbled, as he wrote his words printed in small, perfect penmanship in spite of the speed with which his hand flew across the paper. Tony had always found it mesmerizing that his words and thoughts were always so legible. His father oftentimes would use a form of shorthand that Tony had learned to decode for the most part over the years.

Tony set the box on the floor beside the door, Howard’s eyes briefly flashing over to it and then back to the paper. “Anything I can help with?” he offered, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans and coming towards the bed and the middle of the room.

Howard seemed to contemplate the offer for a moment before shaking his head. “Not yet...I’m still trying to figure out the end to this particular train of thought. Maybe after though?” he replied, leaving the door open for Tony’s perspective in the future.

“Of course, anytime.”

Howard flashed a brief smile and went back to writing. 

“I’m on a quest to find, Mom. Have you seen her?” 

“Shower.”

“Oh.” Tony glanced at the closed bathroom door and now that he listened, he could hear the steady sounds of the water from the shower falling. He stood in the middle of the room unsure if he should wait for her or just come back later, but if he left now he was out of excuses for not opening The Box. 

Howard seemed to sense his indecision and leaned over and cleared one side of the bed free of papers without even looking up from what he was doing. “She’ll be out in a few minutes. Have a seat.”

“I feel like I’m in trouble when you say it like that,” he said flopping on the bed, making a slight breeze blow the corner of Howard’s papers up. 

“You ever going to open that box?”

“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”

“Probably because you have been carrying it around for the last day like it’s a bomb.”

“I think you’re all just nosy.”

Howard just shrugged his shoulder. “That is a distinct possibility.” He set down his pencil then and gave Tony his full attention. “I can’t believe that we missed saying goodbye to her by a matter of days.”

After the arrival of The Box Tony had a sit down with his parents to explain Peggy’s condition and the subsequent degeneration and passing. Coming fresh on the heels of the explanation of the loss of Ana and Jarvis it had been draining and further led to Tony’s reasoning for not seeing what was inside. 

“I’m not sure she would have believed it was really you even if she could have seen you. Her mind was pretty bad at the end. The last time I saw her she actually...thought I was you.”

“Me?” Howard seemed surprised and looked Tony over. He looked like he wanted to ask Tony more about that visit but seemed to think better of it, gauging Tony’s own emotions and pivoted into another direction. “There is a bit of a resemblance. Though you’d look better if you got rid of all of this,” he motioned to Tony’s beard.

“Can’t this is too iconic now,” Tony ran a hand through his signature goatee. “Though if I ever am on the run or something I think that’d be all I need to do to go incognito.” 

Howard and Tony continued discussing the merits of facial hair, the conversation steadily moved away from The Box and Peggy Carter or anything that bordered on being too emotional. Things had begun to look up for them in the last couple of days since the revelation of the Jarvis’. Tony had finally gotten to see a little bit of a different side of Howard, a comforting side that he had longed for and been missing as he grew up. They had a long way to go still but finally some solid progress had been made.

The handle on the door to the bathroom began to turn, drawing Tony’s eyesight back to the reason that he was here in the first place and he startled that he hadn’t even realized how much time had passed or even heard when the water had been shut off.

“Mom, I’m out here too, so please be fully clothed. I don’t want to go blind at forty-six,” he called out as a precaution. He had never accidentally been the victim of anything so embarrassing growing up and he certainly didn’t want to add that to the list of things he never wanted to see again now. 

Maria exited the ensuite as immaculate as ever, fully dressed thank god, hair already dried (had he and Howard really been so involved in their chatter that he didn’t hear the hair dryer or realize how much time had passed?).

“This is my room,” she said, moving towards the bureau and a little stand that she kept the little bit of jewelry that she had brought with her from the mansion, slipping on a bracelet she had set out, “if you had seen anything it would have been your own fault.” She turned towards them on the bed and leaned forward to press a quick kiss to Howard’s lips and a peck to Tony’s cheek. “Are you boys working on a project?” 

His mother very carefully kept her eyes away from The Box, purposefully avoiding it as she indicated the papers sprawled around them. 

“Actually, I came to see you, I wanted to return something, well to both of you really.”

Tony stood up and dug into his pocket for a moment, fishing out a small clear baggy. 

“I meant to give these back sooner but I had to have Happy make a special trip back to the tower to get them.”

He handed the baggy over to his mother and let her open it, a small gasp being pulled from her mouth as she pulled out the wedding bands that Tony had been carrying around with him from coast to coast since he’d come into their possession that day at the morgue. It was one of the few things of his parents that he hadn’t just had stored away, keeping them with him as a reminder of how quickly life could change, indicated further by their return all these years later.

“Howard, look! I thought we had lost these forever,” Maria marveled, sitting in Tony’s spot and reaching for Howard’s hand. She smiled at him as she took his gold band and slid it back to where it belonged on his hand. He returned the intimate gesture with her wedding ring and engagement band, the diamonds set within the band and the larger one featured, still shining as brightly in the light as they ever had. 

Tony turned away, a little pink in the face, at the kiss that followed. 

“Where did you find these?” his mother asked, finally pulling away from Howard and back to him, a bright smile on her face as she kept touching and glancing down at her finger, the rings still a perfect fit after all this time.

Tony closed his eyes as the memory of that cold and dank morgue filled his head, the bodies that he had identified laying on the slab. 

“They gave them to me...after I identified your bodies.”

The excitement of the room dropped with the single statement and its implications. Maria’s smile waned and even Howard looked a little gut punched.

“I don’t know how Hydra did it but the doubles they had were...very convincing. The male even had your scar,” Tony said lowly, indicating the hip scar to Howard. “The female...I should have looked into it more.”

“There was nothing that you could have done,” Maria said, standing and coming to his side, imploring him to look at her but he couldn’t quite meet her eye, not if he wanted to finish what he was saying. 

“I knew something was wrong. Her hands, her nails. They weren’t the same and I tried telling Aunt Peggy but she didn’t believe me, not that I blame her, I was still pretty hung over, but I should have kept looking into it anyways instead of letting it go, letting Obadiah placate me with bogus dna tests.”

He didn’t really blame Peggy, like he’d said. She had been no more to blame than Rhodey for not entertaining his desperate, grieving ramblings. 

And yet…

Ever since he had found out what had really happened to his parents though, from the first moment that tape rolled something dark had itched at the back of his brain in anger, wondering how the great Agent Carter could have been so deceived. Tony had been just a kid, naive and sheltered from the ugliness of the world that wasn’t directly related to the press or paparazzi, but she was a spy, THE spy, founder of Shield and at the time he would later learn, the acting director during his parents demise, and she’d never given him a single indication that she suspected anything was amiss.

Maybe that was part of his problem with The Box. No matter how much he knew he couldn’t blame her, there was always that lingering doubt in his mind, raising his hackles and wondering what would have happened all those years ago if someone  _ had  _ believed him.

“It’s still not your fault. You saved us now, and that is all that matters in the end,” Maria spoke emphatically, her shining blue eyes still staring him down, trying to erase or absolve any guilt that she could find in his own eyes. She reached out and grabbed his hand in hers and attempted to lighten the mood. “Should I perhaps not get too attached to my rings?” 

The question caught him off guard. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know,” Maria said, her smile turning mischievous. “Maybe there was a certain redhead whose finger it might look better on a little down the line?”

Oh.

He studied Maria’s face, the little twinkle in her eye, the upturned corner of her smile and how happy that she seemed. Even Howard was shooting a little glance his way waiting to see how he would respond to that question, his brow lifted in silent inquisition. 

So, they thought they had him did they?

“I appreciate the thought but Pepper and I have a ways to go before we even think about that, we just got back together.”

“Carpe Diem, Anthony.”

“Trust me, I know all about that,” he said, turning to pick up The Box and leave. “Besides, you’re assuming that I haven’t had the perfect ring picked out for her since I came home from Afghanistan.” 

He smiled his favorite shit eating grin, leaving his matchmaking mother with some food for thought. 

* * *

Tony was staring at The Box. 

He had finally come to the decision that he couldn’t drag it around with him everywhere, it was actually fairly heavy for one and his bad arm ached from the strain of constant transport. He also thought that he might go nuts if someone asked him one more time when he was going to open it. 

“Just open it fast, stop thinking about it too deeply. You’ve got to use the band aid metaphor and just do it quick and all at once,” Rhodey spoke from beside him. 

Pepper flanked Tony’s other side as they sat around the table in the common room, The Box occupying the center of the coffee table. He had called them in for emotional support just as much as he would also rather them witness it

so he didn’t have to explain his findings again.

“Scalpel,” Tony said, sticking his palm out in Rhodey’s direction.

“I don’t have anything. I didn’t know this is what we were doing today. When you said there was a surprise in the common room I was thinking more along the lines of a Lethal Weapon marathon or something,” Rhodey shrugged. 

“You’re failing me honeybear. That’s later. Scalpel?” He said holding the opposite hand out to Pepper. 

She sighed and grabbed her handbag from where it sat beside her and started rifling through its contents. “I have a pen...oh wait.” She pulled out a small rectangle and clicked a switch, a small blade coming out. “Will this work?”

“Pepper, what the hell?” Tony asked as he took the small switchblade from her. “Where did you get this?” 

“Natasha gave me that years ago. Said I needed to carry something deadlier than pepper spray to protect myself.”

Tony gave her a dubious glance. “Then she has obviously never seen you use pepper spray before.”

He turned back to The Box and carefully used the blade to cut through the tape on the ends first and then the middle, the blade was small but deadly sharp, cutting through the thick packing tape with ease, gliding through it like butter. He had to give it to Natasha, she knew her knives and made sure Pepper had the best of the best, he’d have to thank her if he ever saw her again. 

This dispute with the UN was looking to come to a close and T’Challa had withdrawn his complaint against her, but Natasha was still a wanted felon, having assisted with Steve and Barnes escape. The fate of the Rogue Avengers would be made known soon enough.

That was a worry for another day though. 

He took a deep calming breath as he closed the blade back up and set it down on the table. Rhodey and Pepper both placed a reassuring hand against him, one on each shoulder, and leaned forward and opened it up.

“There’s a letter,” he mumbled, reaching forward to grab the envelope that rested on top of the contents inside. His eye glanced over the rest of the contents but he didn’t see anything particularly mind blowing, stacks of thick manila folders, fairly old and worn by the look of them, and an old vhs tape. 

“Read that first then,” Pepper encouraged. 

Tony stared at the envelope, the undeniable fancy script of his deceased Aunt decorating the outside with his name. His hand shook a little with it in his grasp, his nerves finally getting the better of him. 

“You do it,” he said, shoving the envelope into Pepper’s hands instead. He didn’t trust himself to keep his emotions in check long enough to read aloud whatever had been left to him. 

Truth be told, he still felt the undeniable guilt of not going back to see his Aunt anymore after the Howard fiasco. At that time he was in too rough of shape, his emotions raw and anything that could have possibly gone wrong, happening within such a quick span of time. He had still called her and talked to her on the phone, the good days coming fewer and farther between, but over the phone at least she didn’t call him Howard. Even when she didn’t know he was. He would rather be confused for Daniel than his own father. 

He wasn’t even able to make it to her funeral either. Instead, he’d made a pit stop on his way to consult with the UN on the Accords, gave a couple of hundreds to the funeral director to let him in before the wake and pay his respects alone. 

Pepper opened the envelope without question and unfolded the letter inside. The letter must have been written ahead of time, before her condition was too bad. The penmanship was still perfect whereas later it would become nearly illegible. 

When the letter was unfolded a small picture fell to the ground and Tony leaned down to retrieve it. He smiled when he saw what it was, a picture of him and Peggy on the day he graduated from Andover, the cap and gown practically engulfing him as he and Peggy smiled brightly at the camera. 

He flipped the picture over and it simply said,  _ Tony, June 1984, Age 14. _

“Now, there’s a baby face I haven’t seen in a long time,” Rhodey mused over Tony’s shoulder.

“And this is why I don’t shave,” Tony grinned, remembering his earlier conversation with Howard. No matter how old he got, as soon as the beard was gone he looked almost exactly the same as this picture, though his jawline was a bit sharper. Pepper called him Benjamin Button on the few occasions he had actually had to shave. 

“Are you ready?” she asked gently, and he almost had forgotten about the letter. He nodded to her solemnly and she began to read out loud.

_ Tony, _

_ First let me preface this with an apology.  _

_ I should have told you about all of this long ago, but I didn’t because I never wanted to get your hopes up. I saw what that hope did to your father with Steve. It became an obsession and a source of constant failure for him when he was unable to locate the wreckage, no matter how much money and time he poured into the search. I didn’t want for this to be your Steve and your bright future to be buried by the weight of the knowledge in this box. You were so young and so hurt. I have only ever wanted to protect you. _

_ Please know that I have always believed you, darling, and I never stopped looking. I’m sorry that I couldn’t do more to find out the truth or to bring them home. _

_ I am giving this to you now, with my death so that you can make the decision now that you’re older and more mature, to continue this pursuit or not. Just please, please do not lose yourself to this. Let your loved ones be there for you, to help you and see it through.  _

_ I love you, _

_ Aunt Peggy _

“What does she mean?” 

Pepper turned to face him but he couldn’t find his voice to answer her. Instead he found himself digging into the box and pulling open the old and worn files. Files that had so obviously been opened and thumbed through a countless number of times. The old Shield logo decorated the outside of the files and he flipped the first set open, the thick cover flopping against the table, papers and photos stapled to the inside. 

He knew that road. The video of the snowy evening he’d had to watch in the frigid Siberian bunker coming to life again in a stack of colorized photographs of his parents mangled vehicle. A timeline of events was detailed on one page, including a phone record from the car phone that was made just minutes before the estimated crash time, to none other than Peggy Carter. This file detailed nearly everything that he had already known about the crash, some of it looked like it had been directly lifted from the Long Island police report he had read over in the morgue before the identification.

He closed the file up and set it aside, letting Rhodey and Pepper take their own look at it. The rest of the files were much of the same, detailed accounts of witnesses interrogated, an abandoned airport that had been operated by a Hydra loyalist who took his life before questioning. 

There had even been a file on Obadiah. It looked like Shield had been keeping tabs on him and the people he interacted with, though most had come up clean. It wasn’t until 2008 that the file grew thicker, his contacts with the Ten Rings finally exposed as well as other smaller terrorist units. A picture of the man that was pulled from one of his press photographs had a single word written in red marker on it. 

_ Hydra? _

That actually would have made a lot of sense. Tony wouldn’t have put anything passed that bastard after his betrayal had been made known. The implications of a revelation like that ran deep though and he wondered just for how long the man may have been working for the group. Given Hydra’s infestation into Shield from the very beginning there was no telling. 

_ I have always believed you. _

That line from her letter ran through his mind when he opened another file containing morgue photographs of the imposter couple. Along with the standard photographs and what they now knew were false DNA results and fingerprint analysis’, was several close up photos taken of the deceased females hands. 

“These are the people that you thought were your parents?” Pepper questioned softly, her eyes wide as she turned the photographs around and compared them to the shots included of the real Howard and Maria. The looks truly were frighteningly uncanny. 

“Yeah. These bastards were pretty smart. They had to have been planning this for a while. Some serious plastic surgery or something had to be involved,” Rhodey answered for him.

He let them continue chatting beside him as he continued looking through the files. Then he opened up a set that was very familiar to him. Siberian mountain ranges and coordinates marked over topographical maps. Familiar names and dates spanning from around February of 1992 up until she had gone into a care facility. 

These were the files that he and Peggy had been going through during his last visit with her. Not only that, but most of the locations marked weren’t very far from the Hydra bunker that he would eventually reunite with his family at. She had been so close to finding them, and she really did never give up until the day she no longer could do it. 

The entire operation had been kept very quiet, he was sure any Agents working the case didn’t know all the facts about who the targets were that they were searching for, just that they were looking for Hydra footholds.

There was only ever one other name that signed off on any of the reports. 

“I’ll be damned, Agent,” Tony mumbled, and shared his finding with the other two.

“Coulson…” Rhodey glanced at Tony in shock.

“No wonder he was assigned to you. He already knew more about your life and past than even yourself.”

“Yeah. Something like that.” 

Tony flipped the last file shut and reached in for the last couple objects in the box. One was a video tape, dating to his parents accident and he was pretty certain that he already knew what that contained and once had been quite enough, thanks anyways Aunt Peggy. 

The last object was a crudely made object, looking like it had been made out of scrap parts and hastily assembled. A tracking device perhaps. He recognized the work though, no matter how cheaply it was put together. It seemed he and his father both didn’t take very well to being held captive, fighting like hell however they could to get out of there alive. 

“Are you okay?” Pepper asked, gently, rubbing his back. 

He thought about the question for a moment, assessing his feelings. He actually didn’t feel too bad, all things considered. A little shocked and a little sad maybe, that his Aunt had taken up this burden so that he wouldn’t have to, but he was beginning to learn that people did a lot of crazy things to protect the ones they loved. He for example flew around in a red and gold suit fighting aliens and robots.

He thought of Howard then and the talks that they had shared since he returned. Perhaps his father had been acting in a similar vein as he had grown up, protecting him from a different burden the only way that he knew how. It didn’t make it better or right, but maybe he could start to understand his father’s thinking, even if he would never agree with it, he could come to terms with it.

“Yeah. Actually, for the first time in awhile, I think I’m going to be alright.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow my blog on tumblr for the latest on chapter postings/delays/updates and just fun bonus content here at [12-16-91-stark](https://tumblr.com/blog/12-16-91-stark)


	19. The Truth Shall Set You Free

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday everyone!! 
> 
> Just a reminder in case you missed it, I posted last weeks chapter on Thursday so make sure you didn't miss it!
> 
> This chapter also marks over 100k words and I'm just astounded to have reached this point and just wanted to as always thank you all for all the love and encouragement that lead to me getting this far. In December this baby was sitting at about 25k, so to have written 75k+ since then...wow. 
> 
> Also a little self promotion for everyone waiting for more Iron Dad, Peter and the events of Homecoming will be featuring more prominently in the upcoming chapters. If you want more Iron Dad content in the meantime, my fic for The Friendly Neighborhood Iron Dad exchange was finally revealed yesterday and can be read on AO3 with the rest of my works! I hope you enjoy it if you give it a look!
> 
> Now, without further ado, onto our darling Stark's and their drama. <3

Howard took a deep breath as he thumbed through the box of papers. He knew that Peggy Carter had always been a tenacious woman who had never given up on anything in her life, but to see the fruits of her labor, being on the other side of that tenacity, he was left with a swelling of love and appreciation that he wouldn’t soon forget. 

“This is...overwhelming,” he admitted as he thumbed through the pages of records and pictures. 

Tony mumbled in agreement, sitting across from Howard in the common room. He had waited another day before inviting Howard and Maria to peruse the contents of the mystery box from their deceased friend. Maria sat beside Tony, eyes wide as she went through her own stack.

“So, I think that I’m able to put the pieces together but I was hoping that maybe you could explain a couple of things for me?” Tony asked, hopefully. 

Howard turned his attention away from the poor bastards who had been used for their doubles. Peggy and Shield had never been able to uncover their true identities, their fingerprints had been completely burned off and replaced with his and Maria’s somehow. It was possible that they had been Hydra loyalists who volunteered for this subterfuge, but he had a sneaking suspicion that this hadn’t been the case here.

“Anything,” he heard Maria respond in earnest. Howard nodded his head in further agreement. They had never really discussed their brief stint of captivity since they had all been reunited, Tony only aware of the bare minimum.

“How did Aunt Peggy know to look for you? Did you call her? I saw a phone record that was pulled from the car…”

Howard could see that night in his mind, the Winter Soldier tailgating their vehicle before hitting it with surprising force, causing him to lose control and crash. He could still hear the sounds of the metal impacting the tree, twisting and turning into jagged shards.

“I called when I realized what the Winter Soldier was trying to do. It all happened so fast though...we crashed before I was able to even get a word out. She knew what we were transporting and was probably mobilizing as soon as she realized it was me.”

Tony nodded along like he thought that may have been the case.

“What about this?” He asked and dropped the old locator beacon into Howard’s palm. 

“Well, son of a bitch,” Howard marveled, turning the device in his hand. “Look what Peggy found.” He held the device out to Maria who smiled when she recognized it. If it hadn’t been for Maria they may have never been able to get the beacon out in the first place, she had been the one to hide them. He hadn’t expected to ever see one of these again. The one that they had kept in the event of their escape had been removed from his person sometime between getting knocked out and thrown into cryo. 

“It’s a locator beacon,” Maria answered as she finished looking it over and handed it back.

“A little rudimentary I admit, but I had to work with the materials I had. I managed to create this. It operated on the same wave frequency as a Shield agent would use if they were in trouble. Hydra had wanted me to recreate the serum, well, no I guess alter is the better word. Make their soldiers stronger, faster, more easily controlled and to make them modified weapons. Refusing only got me busted up and after awhile even that wasn’t enough so I gave them what they wanted...but they didn’t get the chance to live to regret it, if you get my drift. Anyways, we made these as a back up so Peg could find us but with the mountain ranges…”

“The signal was trapped,” Tony answered for him.

“Unfortunately. Your mother though was able to sneak this little guy in one of the weapon shipments that were sent out. I supposed our little idea worked if Peg was able to get a hold of this.”

“It looks like it was found at a facility not too far off from the bunker you were in.”

“I’m sure it gave Peg the proof of life that she needed to keep the operation going. Shield must have gotten too close and that was when they got the order to evacuate and they left us behind in cryo. That Zemo guy is a bastard but I’m honestly a little thankful. If he hadn’t found us...I’m not sure anyone would have.”

Peggy had been the best of the best at what she did and even she had been off mark. 

“I would have,” Tony responded immediately, his voice low and words running together but no less sincere. “No matter what, this box was coming to me upon Aunt Peggy’s...I would never have stopped looking, just like she did.”

Howard felt his heart swell at Tony’s words and wondered how that reunion would have gone. They wouldn’t have been under attack at least, but he doubted it would have been any less awkward. 

“I know you would have,” he replied because he  _ did  _ know that to be true. No matter the issues between them, his son had always been a good man. He encompassed all the best qualities of those who had really raised him. Maria’s goodness, Jarvis’ loyalty, Peggy’s tenacity. He certainly hadn’t inherited those qualities from his father, he thought morosely. The only thing Howard had ever offered him was a masterclass in neglect.

Even now when he was supposed to be making amends, turning over a new leaf and being a whole new Howard he was still sitting here lying to his son. He wasn’t a good man and his secret of the stolen glasses proved as much. All at once the waves of regret washed over his shoulders and weighed him down, lamenting all the time they’d lost in the past but also for whatever what he was about to do was going to do to their fragile truce. He had to though. It was time to lay his cards on the table.

Before he could even process what he was going to do, Howard was speaking. 

“Tony, I’ve made a mistake.”

The idle chatter that Tony and Maria had struck up while he’d been lost in thoughts came to an abrupt end as they turned to look at him expectantly, his words hanging thick in the air.

“What?” Tony spoke after a moment, when it was clear that Howard would not be more forthcoming.

“I messed up,” he repeated, unable to get any further admission past his lips.

“Yeah, I got that…” Tony said, trying to offer a reassuring smile. “Could you elaborate a little more?” 

Howard couldn’t even pretend to crack a smile. Maria shot him a concerned glance as they continued to sit in silence, her brow furrowing with worry. He just hoped that she wouldn’t be too angry either.

“Maybe it would be best if I showed you,” he finally offered before he lost his nerve and stood up, ramrod straight and began to exit the room, not even turning to look bak to see if his bewildered family was following him, but they were, the sounds of two sets of shoes walking at a clipped pace to keep up with him as he made his way to the living quarters. 

He entered his room quickly, rounding the bed with purpose and opened up the bedside drawer. Maria and Tony filed in moments after and Howard knew it was now or never. He reached inside and grabbed the glasses he had stolen and tossed them to the center of the bed.

Howard knew the exact moment that Tony realized what he had, his eyes growing almost comically wider. 

“Where did you get those?” Tony asked, darkly, his voice a low timber in the room. Howard was sure that he already knew the answer. 

Maria just looked confused between the two of them.

“The lab, that first day that Peter was here, when you sent me away.”

“So, what, you just stole this in retaliation or something?”

Howard grimaced. “I honestly don’t know why I did it.”

He knew that wasn’t a good enough excuse for his son, though nothing would have been truly. Howard had fucked up and was just going to have to take whatever Tony doled out to him. It would be worth it if it meant a clean slate to once more try to set their relationship right. It’s what Peggy would have had him do if she were here. She had always been a voice of reason in his life. 

Tony continued to study the glasses on the bed, his own face beginning to show the signs of distress, his jaw clenching and his eyes narrowed. Howard could see whatever progress they had made that night that they talked about Jarvis slowly crumbling beneath his gaze.

“Did you use them?” he finally asked, taking a deep breath to reign in any emotion.

“What is going on? They’re just sunglasses right?” Maria interjected. “Anthony, tell me what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is Howard stole a six hundred and eleven million dollar piece of technology from my lab. Did you use them? He spoke sharply, punctuating each word. 

No way out but forward.

“I did, Just the once,” he admitted truthfully. 

“When?”

“The night that you stormed out of the lab.”

Howard watched Tony’s eyes light up in recognition as he began to start putting the pieces together. “The night you had a migraine? Of course, the electromagnetic headache is a bitch after use, something I’m still working on.”

“I could help,” he offered and he instantly knew that had been the wrong response.

“Unbelievable. Do you even realize what you could have done, aside from scrambling your brain? These are not calibrated for you. You’re lucky a migraine is all you ended up with. Didn’t I specifically ask you not to mess with technology that you don’t understand?”

He hated being chastised by anyone and Howard had to take a deep breath and calm his own aggressive responses. He was the one that was in the wrong here and Tony had every right to rant and rave at him until he was blue in the face.The only thing that he could offer was his remorse.

“Tony, I’m sorry. I was angry and I made a mistake.”

“Okay, so why tell me now? This was weeks ago.”

“I’ve been going back and forth between telling you for awhile now. I thought I might just slip them back in the lab without you noticing, but I was honestly intrigued by what I saw.”

“Were you going to use them again?” Tony fired back, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I thought I would...but I wanted to figure out how they worked first. This technology is incredible.”

A compliment that would normally have left Tony preening just rolled off his back, his expression never changing from the look of anger and disappointment. His nose twitched and when he spoke next his voice was thick with barely contained emotion. “Did it ever occur to you to just ask me about it?”

It had. Many times, but no matter how many times he played it out in his mind, Howard could only see it ending in a similar disaster as this. His silence seemed to speak volumes as Tony just nodded his head and reached for the glasses on the bed, snatching them up quickly.

“Well, thanks for returning my stolen tech I guess. I’m done.”

Howard wasn’t sure if he meant with the conversation or him in general, but Tony was out the door before he could utter another word, unable to explain that he had just wanted to start over again and tell the truth.

“What the hell?” Maria questioned as she turned towards him, still as thoroughly out of the loop as she had been when they started. 

It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Tony stormed down the hall pissed off beyond all measure. 

So this was how things were really going to be. Anytime he felt like he and Howard had begun to turn the corner in the right direction he was hit with some bullshit or another, this time in the absolutely baffling form of stealing. 

Ever since he had found out all those years ago about Obadiah’s double dealing with his tech he had become ferociously more protective of it than usual, and to have his own father take something from him in a fit of childish anger was enough to get his blood boiling.

He had trusted the man, let him into his workshop and around his work, only to have that trust immediately shattered. And all because of an argument. Granted Tony had been in the wrong, he understood that deep down, his father hadn’t truly done anything wrong but his own reaction spoke otherwise. Was this something that he should come to expect anytime that they had a falling out? What if next time Howard were to get his hands on something really dangerous and hurt himself or worse even, someone else?

Suddenly he felt the inexplicable urge to just hit something and diverted his angry march from heading to the lab and instead cut across towards the gym. 

On another day he might have been able to talk his anger through with someone, but Pepper had had to go into the city for SI business and Rhodey was at a physical therapy session for most of the day, leaving Tony alone with his parents and now, his anger. 

The gym was equipped with nearly any piece of machinery that any of the Avengers could need. A row of treadmills faced the open windows overlooking the lake, a boxing ring to the side that Tony still liked to spar with Happy in and a wrestling mat for them all to do combatives. There were weights and rowing machines and everything else under the sun but all that Tony had his sights set on were Steve’s reinforced heavy bags. 

He quickly stowed BARF in one of the storage lockers in the changing room and went ahead and swapped his jeans and t shirt out for his favorite gym pants and a black tank top. He forgoed the use of heavy boxing gloves today and instead fitted himself with his MMA gloves, wrapping the cuff over his wrist tightly. 

When he got back out onto the floor, the first combination of punches he landed on the bag were extremely satisfying. Normally, Tony prided himself as being above this primal sort of outlet, favoring instead to lose himself in his work for the team or SI, fixing up a car or the Iron Man suit. Today he finally really understood why Cap could go through ten of these bags a day, reinforced or not, when he had a bug up his ass. 

As he continued to punch away, the bag faded from his mind and instead the objects of his frustrations appeared. Howard stood before him first, but Tony couldn’t allow himself to raise his hand. Instead he shook it off and instead, Zemo came to mind. Zemo hadn’t been the one that had captured his parents but his face was the only that he knew in a sea full of anonymous Hydra thugs. He hit the bag hard, instantly removing the smarmy grin of the man like he wished he had that day in the bunker.

Zemo changed to Secretary Ross and the way he paraded around in arrogance, always looking for another edge or angle to hurt Tony or the team. That day he showed up at the compound like he owned the damn place, threatening him. The sweat flew from his body as he continued to pummel the Secretary, the echoes of his punches and grunts resounding throughout the empty room. 

When the face that he was hitting suddenly shifted to his own he hesitated only briefly before letting loose the fiercest punch that he could manage in his growing exhaustion. As soon as he connected he felt a twinge in his still healing arm.

“Shit!” he muttered as a tremor of pain reverberated up and down the abused limb. Perhaps this hadn’t been the best outlet for his anger.

“You keep hitting the bag like that and you’re going to tear a muscle. You don’t have Cap’s durability,” a soft voice echoed across the gym.

“Fuck! You are all literally trying to kill me with all of this sneaky spy shit aren’t you?” he raged back in response, trying to calm his already erratic heartbeat.

Lucky for him, Natasha was already well versed in his bouts of anger and let the words roll off of her easily as she stood up straight from where she had been leaning against the wall watching him and slowly made her way over.

He watched her wearily from the corner of his eye as she approached, wondering exactly how long she had been watching him and furthermore what the hell she was doing here.

“Friday, security breach!” he called out to the ceiling and settled on one of her sensors. 

“Natasha Romanoff is on the approved list of visitors given that the compound is still listed as her primary residence, boss,” the AI responded matter of factly. 

He groaned. “Of course. What are you doing here?”

“Is that how you greet all your friends, Stark?”

“Depends.  _ Are _ we still friends? You switched to Team Cap in the end, remember?”

“You know why. And it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

“Jury’s still out on that one, but well enough I suppose.”

She flashed him a quick grin. “T’Challa sent me. C’mon, lets get some ice on your shoulder or you’re really going to regret it. I already know you didn’t let it heal properly from last time, did you?”

Tony offered a silent shrug as his breathing finally began to calm. He moved his arm experimentally and groaned with the strain. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him and sighed, moving passed him towards the kitchenette area where they had a mini fridge of water and best of all ice packs. Tony met her halfway, sitting on one of the rest benches as she sat beside him and gently placed the ice pack on his shoulder.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, hissing as the cold met his arm. 

“What would you boys do without me?” she replied fondly.

“Die probably,” he conceded, drawing a quiet laugh. “So, what is T’Challa sending you here for? Aren’t you guys supposed to be laying low in Wakanda until you can strike a deal with the UN?”

“That’s why I’m here. They have reached a decision.”

“Oh? I thought they’d drag out the bullshit for at least a couple more months.”

“Lets just say T’Challa is a very persuasive leader.”

“Why didn’t he send Vision?”

“I’m starting to think you’re not happy to see me. Vision is...on a retreat. With Wanda.”

After a lot of work over the last few days the UN had finally agreed to release the captured Avengers into the care of T’Challa and Wakanda, except for Clint and Ant Man who had taken a separate plea deal for an early retirement in exchange for returning home to their families. Clearly Vision and Wanda were wasting no time in becoming reacquainted. 

Tony stuck out his tongue and made a gagging noise. “Gross, say no more. So, what’s the verdict? A thousand hours of community service?”

“More like an extended probationary period.”

“Not sure I like the sound of that.”

“It’s not ideal, but compared to the RAFT or worse...concessions had to be made which is why I am letting you know now. The team will be back at the Compound by the end of the summer, but we’ll be temporarily reporting to Ross…”

Tony groaned, drowning out anything else that Natasha had said. Ross was proving to be the bane of his existence. With Friday’s help he had been able to get an investigation opened into the unethical treatment of Wanda and that awful shock collar. Clearly neither that nor the ways in which he had viciously chased after Bruce seemed to be of any consequence to the UN.

“How temporary?”

“Six months.”

“That’s the best that they could do?”

“I have faith that you won’t let Ross last that long. I’m sure we can catch him up in something. However,” she said and bit her lower lip, carefully choosing her words. “This does mean that he will be at the Compound a lot more...and so it may be difficult to...hide any secrets.”

“And the truth shall set you free,” he mumbled, readjusting the ice pack. “Who told you? It was Steve right? He can keep secrets from me for years but the one time I need him to keep his self righteous trap shut and he runs his mouth to just anyone.”

“Not just anyone. Your team.” Tony rolled his eyes at that sentiment. “But yes, Steve told me about your...guests. He was worried about what would happen to them if Ross were to find out and so am I.”

“We’ll be in deep shit.”

“Noted. What’s the play?”

“I’ll just have to take a little leave of absence from the team, get them the hell out of here. Go back to the tower maybe. Gives me an excuse to finally get all of your guy’s old junk transported up here. Ross can’t touch us there. I’ll have my lawyers on him before he hits the front door.”

“An absence? You sure about that? It didn’t really work out well the last time you tried.”

“Yeah thanks for reminding me,” he thought back to that brief moment of peace between Killian and Ultron and how restless he had been. Things were different then though. He hadn’t wanted to stop. Now...a break sounded nice, and he knew Pepper would be thrilled at the possibility. 

If they went back to the Tower, she would already be at work, no need for commuting with Stark Industries still taking up the first eighty floors. Tony would be in Manhattan and close to Peter if Spiderman ever needed any help, and his parents would literally have their own floor of living space. Rhodey already had his own space there and the amenities were identical to the compound. His physical therapist wouldn’t have to travel so far. Tony could keep plenty busy with SI stuff and maybe...something else. 

His eyes darted over to the locker that he had placed the glasses into as an idea sparked to life. He had created the glasses for a reason. Perhaps, he could do some good with them too. And he knew just who he could start with.

“Your parents aren’t the only one Ross will be gunning for. He’s been looking into Spiderman too.”

Tony’s eyes went wide and he clenched his fists.

“Easy. He doesn’t know who he is and I made sure they knew that even we weren’t sure. There have just been...inquiries into him so far since he was involved at the airport as well.”

“This day just gets better and better.” He shook his head, running the hand that wasn’t holding the ice pack across his face in frustration. 

They sat like that in quiet for a moment while he tried to piece together a plan to keep Peter safe and far from Ross’ prying eyes. Like it or not he might have to take a step back from this mentoring gig for a while. If Ross suspected he knew who Spider-man really was...

“For what it’s worth Tony…” Natasha began breaking the silence. “Steve really didn’t have all the facts about what happened to your parents.”

It wasn’t often that Nat was able to be open and vulnerable with anyone, but looking at her face now he was able to read her emotions, see the exhaustion chipping at the edge of her eyes, see the guilt lurking behind them. 

“You were there with him,” he suddenly realized. Of course, if Steve had found out with the fall of Shield, Nat had been with him the entire time. And she lied to him too. 

“I was. We didn’t know that they were alive. It was only ever implied that Hydra had played a part. You’ve no reason to believe me, but I’m not lying. It wasn’t right not to say anything to you, we just weren’t sure if Zola was bluffing or not, still, I’m sorry.”

Nat sounded earnest enough and man this was the second strange apology that he had got today. It was bizarre. He wasn’t really upset with her though. Despite his early misgivings of her duplicitous nature, Nat had always had his back on and off the field and he supposed that he did trust her, even now after Germany.

“It’s fine. You guys weren’t the only ones trying to protect me,” he sighed, finally beginning to feel all the aches in his body now that he had been resting for a while. He really must have been going at the bag harder than he thought his hands were a little shaky, though that could have been from the loss of adrenaline too. 

“Here,” Natasha said, reaching behind her and into the fridge, pulling out a cold bottle of water and passing it over to him. 

He took it from her thankfully and drank half of it down almost immediately, before using some of it to splash on his face as he cooled down. 

“How is it not to be an orphan anymore?” she teased.

“Oh, just swell, let me tell you. My father has a self destructive streak a mile wide.”

“Sounds familiar,” she replied, nudging him gently. 

“Yeah, yeah. My mother is simultaneously better and worse. I’m afraid Pep and I are going to come down for dinner one night and she’s just going to jump us and drag us to the nearest catholic church to get married.”

“She’d just be doing what everyone has been thinking for years,” Nat laughed.

There had been a time where the thought of marriage had absolutely terrified him, even when being teased about it. Joking with Nat about it now though...it felt right. Comforting instead of oppressive. He wondered when that feeling had changed so much.

“Yeah, well, maybe she’s not entirely off the reservation on that one.”

“You know…” Nat began softly and he already knew by her hesitance that he probably wouldn’t like whatever she had to say next. “You can’t keep them secret forever. They’re people like anyone else. They should be able to live their lives, come and go as they please.”

He bristled at the implication in her tone, like he was somehow keeping them prisoner. “I know, but it’s going to be done on our terms and I can’t do that with Ross gunning for me. You know what he’d do,” his mind flashing back to the RAFT and not only Wanda’s imprisonment, but the many different lab rooms that he’d passed as well. It wouldn’t matter what he would tell the man about how they had come to be in the year 2016, Ross would try every test and experimentation in the book to make sure it was true and there was no way that he would subject his parents to that.

Natasha placed her hand on his back gently and no words were needed. She would help him however she could. 

“I need to get back, but you know how to get in touch with me if there are any problems.”

As much hell as he had been giving her he actually felt a little sad as she patted her back and began making her way towards the exit. The team had been his family and despite all of their infighting and hang ups they still had managed to become fairly close throughout the last four years. Sometimes he longed for the movie nights where they scarred Cap with horror movies, or hearing Clint and Thor fighting in the kitchen over the last poptart, Bruce’s quiet presence in the background always kind and mediating their shenanigans and this...Nat’s quiet solidarity when he’d not been able to sleep because of nightmares and Pepper was out of town. He could just sit on the couch beside her as she read one of her books, two coffees waiting on the table because she just  _ knew _ .

“Hey, Romanoff,” he called out to her and she stopped and turned to him. He wanted to thank her or maybe tell her he had missed her but he diverged at the last moment, unable to convey his thoughts. “Did you give my girlfriend a switchblade?”

The corner of her mouth twitched up into a grin. “A girl needs to be able to protect herself from any threat.”

He laughed, but she was right. “Thanks for that.”

From the look that she gave him he knew that she understood, he really meant thanks for everything else too. 

“Anytime. Be careful, Tony.”

* * *

Howard ended up in the workshop, under the hotrod working after the blowup with Tony and an appropriate scolding from his wife once he explained his mistake in full detail. 

Even with how it ended up, he didn’t regret it. It was a weight off of his back and all things considered, Tony had a point. He didn’t know what he was doing, no matter how much he wished he understood the technology, it was glaringly obvious that he was outside of his pay grade on this one. It stung his pride to admit it, but that was just something he was going to have to get over.

He had half expected to be locked out of the workshop, or at the very least, be met with his son’s anger again but Tony was nowhere to be found and Friday didn’t mention that any permissions had been rescinded. He just needed to work and use his hands, get his mind steadied. 

He continued to work on the car even after about an hour or so he heard the tell tale sound of the elevator coming down and opening. He stiffened a little beneath the car when he heard the sounds of what he knew to be Tony’s footsteps crossing the room and coming to a stop beside the car.

“Can I have a word, Howard?”

Howard didn’t respond but he slid out from underneath the vehicle, Tony taking a couple steps back as he did. He grabbed a shop towel and wiped his hands off the best he could, as he stood up. Tony looked like he was fresh out of the shower, his hair still a little wet and his clothes different from earlier. He also had a fresh ice pack in place over his left shoulder but when he looked inquiringly Tony just shrugged and solemnly motioned for Howard to follow him and he felt like he was going to his own execution.

“You’re not going to snuff me are you?” he went for levity but the joke fell flat in the face of the tension as he spoke, his voice sounding more gravely than he expected. 

Tony chuckled though as he sat down on the worn black leather couch and gestured for Howard to join him. “Can’t. Don’t want to face Mom’s wrath.”

“Smart man,” Howard added as he sat next to his son, keeping a short distance between them on the cushions. That was when he noticed that Tony held the glasses in his hand and he felt his body stiffen. 

“What did you see when you used these?” Tony asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

“This. The lab, after we fought. Only it was different.”

“It’s because I developed these to tap into the hippocampus and access our memories. Considering emotions were so high and that was the strongest memory for you at the time, then that was what was shown to you.”

That...definitely made more sense than what he had been working off of. 

“I thought it was time travel at first,” he admitted begrudgingly. 

Tony did actually laugh at that. “I’m smart but even I haven’t cracked that one yet, Marty McFly.”

Given the circumstances Howard figured he’d let that comparison slide.“But I was able to change things before it became too much strain…” 

Tony nodded his head like he had expected as much. “That’s what these were created for. Processing traumatic memories. How much do you know about the Battle of New York?”

Images flashed in Howard’s mind from his internet searches of aliens flowing out of a wormhole unchallenged until the first documented arrival of the Avengers. Vile creatures and space whales destroying the city. Video footage of his son disappearing inside the wormhole and then falling back to the Earth.

“Enough.”

“Then you know about the wormhole?” he said with a shudder even now. “The World Security Council was ready to nuke the city when they thought we were losing ground. Instead I took it through the wormhole. The things that I saw were…” he paused, partly in awe but Howard could hear the fear behind his words. “It was beautiful at first, the stars and the planets, just everything that we always thought existed finally right in front of my eyes...and then it sunk in that there are places out there, forces we don’t know about that could just wipe us out without a second thought. This wall of Chitauri was just waiting for us. Suffocating in space was a distant worry compared to the threat that I knew even then, that they were not going to stop, whether we beat them that day or not.”

“You think they’ll be back?”

“I  _ know  _ they’ll be back. Isn’t that what you would do?” he posed the question to Howard.

Howard took a moment to think about it but it was a no brainer. His years of developing weapons told him that. He had studied up on military strategies and maneuvers, his own countries as well as their enemies so he could better develop what would be needed to defeat them if challenged again. 

“Yes, I would. Regroup and strategize.”

“Exactly.”

“So, how did that lead to those?”

“I couldn’t sleep for years afterwards without closing my eyes and ending up back in that wormhole. Even with Pepper. I tried the traditional therapy approach...kinda,” he said thinking of that day with Bruce. “And when that didn’t really work out I looked into creating alternatives as a way to deal with my anxiety surrounding those events. Changing the events didn’t make them not happen, but it allowed me to healthily express my emotions I guess? Play out different scenarios.”

“Did it help?” he questioned, softly.

Tony sighed deeply, like just telling that information to anyone else had completely taxed him. “I still don’t sleep the best all the time but I can close my eyes and not send myself into a panic attack. I’m not lashing out when I dream anymore. It helped to get a lot of weight off of my chest.”

“At least you’ve tried to address your problems. Every time I try to...I end up making everything worse between us.”

Admitting these problems was surprisingly starting to come a little easier the more that he forced himself to stop bottling everything up that came to his relationship with his son. He hoped that Tony could at least see that he was making the attempts, just sometimes he did stupid things too, like swipe his tech without his knowledge. 

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about actually.”

Oh?

“You have my attention.”

Tony huffed and turned his body to face Howard better on the couch. “I was already coming up with some tweaks and ideas so that they could help Barnes, maybe help get rid of that pesky Winter Soldier programming, but today I realized… why stop there?”

He reached out his hand to Howard expectantly and so he met him with his own. Tony gently placed the glasses into his hand and then leaned back against the couch. 

“What’s this about?” he asked confused. Just a couple hours ago Tony had nearly ripped his head off over these glasses and now he was just handing them over to him like that?

“I want for you to have them, temporarily. This doesn't mean I'm okay with what you did. Maybe the only way for us to stay on track is for you to be able to process your own shit first."

Howard accepted this with a skeptical look but before he could voice any of his concerns about the glasses or doing it on his own, Tony reached his hand out and grasped his shoulder, his eyes fixed steadily on Howard's own, voice completely serious.

"And I’m going to help you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howard's conscious finally won out! Yay for painstakingly slow development on his part! lol Also Tony and Nat's friendship is one of my all time favs and I had to sprinkle it in there a bit. lol


	20. The Happy Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup I'm back on my 2am Tuesday bullshit. lol
> 
> Holy crap we have passed 800 kudos. I'm truly humbled guys. Thank you so much as always.
> 
> Not much in the way of notes this week but this chapter is a little soft to prepare us for the turbulence ahead but yay for progress!!!!! I hope you all enjoy! Please leave me your thoughts in the comments and I will get back to you! Love you all and stay safe!

Pepper was in rant mode. 

Something that ordinarily would send anyone else heading for the hills, but that Tony was all too familiar with from her days spent nagging him to sign this or that, about the people he kept waiting while he did whatever he wanted, and how unprofessional it was to have calls forwarded directly to his voicemail to never be heard from again. 

Still, she was all bark and no bite, at least with him and they both knew it. 

Tony just watched her transfixed at the way she moved her lips and the way that her cheeks would heat up with a pink flush. It took nearly everything he had to not just break into a smirk. If he did, at this point, it would have had the opposite effect than he desired, so he bit his tongue and continued to listen half heartedly, still too distracted to offer more than cursory responses to her words.

This dress... he’d forgotten how beautiful she had looked in it the first time he saw her. The periwinkle, backless number that had been her birthday present from him, so tasteful and beautiful that there was no way he could have ever actually picked it out, despite his own fashion capabilities. There was just something so...Pepper about it. He couldn’t begin to find the right words to express how he felt about it...how he was feeling about her. 

But then she looked at him finally, her eyes had been darting back and forth from the gala, to the city overlooking the balcony, her voice anxious and nervous, the normally unphasable Pepper Potts flustered and falling apart.

And that’s when he knew for sure. 

He was in love with Pepper Potts.

He wasn’t exactly surprised when he realized it. It all felt like a natural progression, a slow, warm underlying emotion that had been building for a decade with each casual touch, and long nights eating pizza and working together. The daily banter that never failed to make them smile. Every “Will that be all Mr. Stark?” teasingly spoke.

Only instead of warm and underlying now, that emotion had been brought into sharp clarity in that cave, when his head was being dunked beneath the freezing water. He could hear her voice, see her face and suddenly he had a new motivation to escape from that awful place, if only so he could see her one more time. 

And looking at her now, cheeks flushed, a bead of sweat drying in the cool air from where they'd danced in the crowded concert hall, that emotion, that love, burned bright and hot like a fire burning everything else in its wake, and he knew what he needed to do.

“..And we’re here, and then I’m wearing this ridiculous dress, and then we were dancing like that…” she continued, unperturbed by his gaze, the words slowing, trailing off as she suddenly seemed to be taking stock of him as well. Her eyes wandered from his own and down to his lips, contemplating and then inching forward, her head turning ever so slightly as her eyes fell shut in anticipation.

He was ready for her, leaning forward to meet her lips with his own, wondering how she could feel so incredibly soft beneath him. Her hands came up to grip his biceps as she melded further against him, his own hands finding her hips and holding on tightly, never wanting this moment to end…

"Let me stop you right there before this gets graphic, I think I understand the concept now," Howard spoke up, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes and turned away from the simulation.

Replica Tony and Pepper were frozen in their embrace, illuminated on the lab testing floor. 

"Well, that's no fun, I just got to the good part," Tony teased as he deactivated BARF, his counterpart and Pepper slowly fading away back into nothing. "You think I should grow my hair back out? I forgot how good I looked."

Howard offered a noncommittal mumble that Tony couldn't entirely make out as he came back to plop down on the beat up leather sofa, beside his father. 

They had been running scans all morning trying to get Howard used to and prepared for using BARF. It was a complicated process involving brain waves and frequencies but Tony thought he probably finally had it figured out, they would know more once Friday was finished processing the data and could upload it to the glasses. In the meantime Tony had been teaching him more about the process and getting the best simulation results. The reason that Howard’s first attempt had been so skewed had mainly been because the glasses were not calibrated for his mind, but also from his lack of focus on the memory itself. 

Happy memories were always the easiest simulations to display. The stronger the emotion tied to the moment, the easier it was to replicate the setting and its details with minimal discomfort afterwards. 

Tony didn't have a plethora of happy memories to pull from but that night at the gala had definitely been in his top five. It was when he finally realized that warm achy feeling he had whenever he was around Pepper was actually love and he had been surprised with the force with which it had hit him. Only in real life, instead of being ready for her to lean forward to kiss him, his mind had completely blue screened trying to process not only this realization but that  _ she _ was actually leaning towards  _ him _ and seemed to feel exactly the same way. Then the moment had broken. 

This time he had been prepared, nearly eight years of loving Pepper Potts under his belt and giving her the kiss that she had deserved.

He looked over at his embarrassed father and thought he should probably feel embarrassed too for offering up such a private moment, but he had never really been shy with his relationship with Pepper, and besides he liked to make his father squirm. He had always been so unflappable as a child, but maybe this was the new Howard, or maybe just the realest version of Howard that he had ever known.

Besides, what other memory could he show him that wouldn't be worse? He definitely wouldn't be showing him the more serious memories, the ones he used to process his own trauma, like the one from the MIT demonstration. He could show his father Pepper and he could show a roomful of college kids his life's regrets but the two were not interchangeable. Not now. Maybe not even in the future. 

"That's what I should have done," he added, conversationally to the quiet room. 

"You changed the memory? I thought that wasn't needed with the happy ones?" 

That was the thing with BARF. Not every memory needed to be altered. Tony used the happy ones in the early days when he was first working on the project for the simplicity and sometimes it was all that kept him going at the time. 

"Not usually. That one deserved to be tweaked though."

"Don't tell me you left her hanging after she put herself out there to you…"

"Worse, I left her hanging there emotionally, went to get us drinks and then was bombarded by a reporter with pictures of our stolen tech and went to confront Obadiah, leaving her physically hanging as well, I suppose."

His father turned to look at him like he was the world's biggest dumbass. Tony raised a hand up to cut him off before he could vocalize that fact. "I know. Trust me, I know. Pepper has told me off many times for this gravest of errors." 

"As long as you know," Howard conceded, shaking his head in disbelief. 

"Not my finest hour, I'll admit."

"You're lucky that woman has the patience of a saint." 

"Please, pot meet kettle. Mom has been dealing with you for what? Fifty one years?”

Howard opened his mouth to protest. “It has not been that long. We’ve only been married since ‘65.”

“Yeah, I know. 1965, 2016. Simple mathematics.”

Howard seemed confused for a moment, his eyes narrowing and then going wide as the shocking realization fell over him. That was when Tony caught on too. His parents would be celebrating fifty one years of marriage, that much was true, Tony’s math was never wrong. What he hadn’t calculated though was that to his father it had only been twenty-six years. Half of their marriage the two had been in cryo, missing major milestones in their union. 

“I’m sorry,” Tony spoke lowly, ducking his head. 

“Don’t be,” Howard quickly cut him off. “You didn’t do anything wrong. It  _ has  _ been that long, I just...hadn’t realized.”

“Guess, you owe Mom a lot of anniversary presents,” Tony joked to break the film of tension that settled over the air.

Howard snorted. “I might need to borrow your credit card, my credit line is a little non-existent at the moment.”

“Done. Just whatever you do, don’t buy her a 10ft rabbit. Turns out that’s not an appropriate gift,” Tony shrugged.

“You didn’t.”

“I did.”

“Who taught you how to gift shop for a woman?”

“Some bikers actually.”

“Well, there’s your first clue, Sherlock,” he responded but there was no actual bite to his comment and Tony couldn’t help but grin and watch as Howard stood up from the couch and stretched.

Tony was about to respond in kind when his phone buzzed in his pocket several times in quick succession. His heart dropped a little bit because he already knew who it was. Peter had been texting him off and on since his last visit to the compound, sending rapid fire messages interspersed with emojis or gifs. He was always wondering when he’d be back,  _ (I promise we can just work on whatever you want! _ ) or detailing out his recent patrols ( _ Stopped a couple of kids from shoplifting, turns out they were just hungry so I bought them some sandwiches from Delmar’s _ ), and asking any and every pop culture question that came into his head ( _ Who shot first- Han Solo or Greedo?, Y’know this really old movie Weird Science where they basically 3D print a woman...is that how Vision was born? _ ).

For the most part Tony had left the messages unanswered or provided short, non committal responses. He only hoped that with school starting up again soon that Peter’s messages would taper off as he became busier during the day. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to talk to the kid, but something that Nat had mentioned a few days ago about how Ross was sniffing around Spiderman and his identity had freaked Tony out. It was bad enough that he had even drawn the kid into Germany to begin with, let alone directly into his own little orbit with these visits to the compound and his little mini trips to Queens. If Peter’s identity were to be exposed by Ross somehow, not only would he get in trouble with the Accords committee for recruiting a minor, but Peter’s life would be ruined. 

With that particular bit of detail in his mind, he pulled the phone from his jeans and checked his messages and sure enough, it was Peter. 

_ Hey Mr. Stark!  _

_ Sorry to keep bothering you so much. _

_ Just checking in… need help working on anything? _

_ Or any superhero stuff? _

_ Spiderman is at the ready! _

His fingers hovered over the reply button indecisively, already feeling the dread and anxiety begin to curl in his stomach at the thought of ignoring the kid again. He could just answer the kid, let him know what was going on and why they maybe shouldn’t talk for right now, but he also really didn’t want to worry the kid over nothing. Yeah Ross was snooping around but it was Tony’s own brand of paranoia that was behind the steering wheel here and he really didn’t want to let that rub off on the kid. 

“Everything okay? You’ve been staring pretty hard at that screen for the last few minutes.”

“Hmm?” Tony snapped to attention and closed out the messages on his phone, leaving them unanswered. “Oh, yeah, just Rhodey sending me some cat videos.”

“Cat videos?”

“You devoured the entire internet in one night, Howard, and you’re telling me you never once stumbled across the founding fathers?”

Howard’s confusion turned to skepticism. “I suppose not. My searches were a little more..focused.”

“Which is still a little creepy by the way,” Tony pointed and stood up himself, trying to think of what to do about Peter. Maybe what they needed was a buffer. Someone between them that could still feed Tony information about Peter while keeping a safe distance at the same time in case Ross was looking. 

Or you know. Tell him the truth, that associating with him was putting Peter in danger. But again. He was what fourteen? Again not something that he should be worrying about right now. 

“Well, it was either that or try prying the information directly from the source but that hadn’t worked out so well the first few times I asked.”

Oh, right. He was still talking to Howard. He shook his head to try and clear his mind, giving his father his full attention back.

“To be fair, I had known you guys were alive for less than twelve hours and hadn’t slept much in the seventy two before that. You’re not exactly a fountain of information yourself,” he finished with a shrug of his shoulders.

“I guess we both prefer to keep things close to the vest.”

That was an understatement, he thought, unbidden thoughts of his father confessing how Tony was in fact his greatest creation at the end of the Expo outtake reel. It was frustrating and a little ridiculous, yet they both couldn’t seem to act any other way.

“Why do we do that?”

“To protect ourselves, I suppose.”

“But why? Why can’t we just say what needs to be said, instead of ignoring it until it inevitably blows up in our faces?”

Howard scrunched his forehead up in confusion once more, getting the sense that perhaps they weren’t entirely on the same page at the moment. “Is there something that you wanted to talk about, Tony?”

He seemed open and honest enough and for a moment Tony did want to tell him what was bothering him, but just as quickly the moment passed. 

“No, I’m fine. What do you say we take a break?” he asked, instead, wandering back over to his workstation. “Fri, how are we doing on Howard’s specs?”

“Estimated completion time thirty nine minutes.”

“Perfect.” He took the glasses back out and hooked the small USB into the side. “Go ahead and upload them as soon as they’re complete and we can do some test trials later one today maybe, migraine free this time.” He offered Howard a smile hoping that he would understand that the man really hadn’t done anything wrong or to offend him. He just needed to go take care of a few things first. 

Howard seemed resigned but he didn’t try to stop him. “What if I gave it a go on my own this once? I feel like I have a better handle on what I am doing now, and it seems like you have something important that you need to take care of.”

Tony’s anxiety began to build, using his jeans to wipe the sweat from his hands. On one hand, Howard was looking for permission to do this on his own if needed and Howard Stark never asked anyone for permission, Tony was quite sure of that. If need be he could always have Friday monitor him...but if something went wrong…

Tony sighed. “What are the odds of you doing it anyways?”

Howard smirked. “I learned my lesson last time. You have my word that I won’t do anything if you say not to. I’d just...like to give it another go now that I understand it.”

_ Unprecedented _ . 

“Friday, you up for a babysitting detail?”

“Of course. What else do you think I've been doing for you this last year, boss?” Tony scoffed as his father hid a smile behind his hand. 

“That’s the last time I program an AI with personality,” he said, shaking his head in fond exasperation at one of Friday’s sensors before turning back to Howard. “Happy memories only. I’m serious. I’ll help you deal with the rest later. Deal?”

“Deal.”

* * *

“Hap, you got a minute?” Tony asked, approaching his friend. 

Happy looked at him with an incredulous expression. “This is the second time that I have washed this car, take a wild guess,” he said, going back to wiping down one of Tony’s Audis.

“Yeeeeeeah,” Tony drew out as he reached the man. “Guess there’s not much for you to do at the moment is there?”

“Is there ever these days?”

Tony grabbed one of the microfiber cloths Happy was using to wipe down the windshield and began wiping down the other side. It wasn’t that there was nothing for Happy to do, he’d come a long way from Tony’s personal bodyguard to heading the entire security team but when Tony or Pepper remained as idle as they had been recently he was relegated to the sidelines. Even now with Pepper in Malibu for a business trip, she preferred to take some of Happy’s team as his overbearing nature, while much appreciated, was a bit too thorough having nearly tackled a barista once that was only bringing her forgotten change out. So, Happy was relegated to coordinating from afar instead, and occasionally being called on by Tony, like now, for other jobs. 

“How about a new promotion?”

Happy looked across the vehicle skeptically, searching Tony’s face for something. He must not have found it because he went right back to cleaning the windshield. “Why do I feel like I’m not going to like this promotion?”

“Aw, c’mon Hap, give me a chance, have I ever steered you wrong?”

“Multiple times in fact,” he immediately responded, not missing a beat. “Like that time I got that ticket because I had to haul ass through a red light so I didn’t lose you back in Malibu, of the time you dared me to try those Rocky Mountain Oysters at that fancy restaurant and it turned out to not be oysters at all but bull test-”

“Okay, fine, so maybe there has been a couple of times but I promise this is not a bad thing.”

“I still don’t believe you. What is it now?”

“I just need you to be a point of contact for me.”

“Point of contact, what like the mob or something?”

“Not quite. Like to manage a mutual friend.”

“Who?”

“Pete-”

“Nope.”

“Aw, c’mon Hap.”

“No. Been there done that, I bought the t-shirt. Not happening,” he said tossing the cloth into his bucket of supplies and moving around the car to Tony’s side. Tony followed suit tossing his towel down as well before standing in front of the man and blocking his retreat.

“Why not?”

Happy’s eyes widened, giving Tony a double take before listing off Peter’s defects one finger at a time. “Why- why not?? The kid is hyper, he talks about everything, never shuts up, I can’t even hear myself think. I thought  _ YOU _ never shut up. He climbs walls and does all these crazy little flips and uses that web for everything. I had webbing all over the car for hours. And he eats everything in sight like a little starving baby shrew or something, he’s worse than Rogers.”

At Steve’s name Tony flinched a little. He hadn’t talked to him since that first night back at the compound. Things were still a little weird between them even though he had tentatively agreed to sign the accords if it meant that Bucky would be safely taken care of. That had been easy enough to ensure once T’Challa brought Zemo and his crimes to light but he was still dragging his feet while the Rogues were still under scrutiny, the deal not finalized yet. 

“Sorry,” Happy mumbled but Tony waved him off. 

“It’s fine. Look. I wouldn’t ask but with the hearings winding down, I have it on good intel that Ross and his team are going to be putting us under a microscope. He doesn’t know about Peter being Spiderman yet but it won’t take much to put together if he keeps spending time with me. I’m already dealing with my parents, I can’t have my focus pulled in both directions right now…” He reached out and grabbed Happy’s broad shoulder and looked at him wide eyed and open before injecting as much honesty and sincerity in his voice as possible. “If there’s anyone that I can trust the kid to, then it’s you, Hap.”

Sure enough he saw when the man began to falter, face twitching as he released a deep breath and looked anywhere but at Tony.

“What do you want me to do?” he finally relented and Tony couldn’t help but to pull the man in for a hug that he grumbled through the entire time, playfully pushing him away.

“I just need you to talk to him. Respond to his texts and take his mission reports for Spidey, be his support guy.”

“Are you sure this isn’t something you can do?

“Hap…”

“Okay, okay. I’ll keep spiderbaby safe from the big bad government.”

“I owe you big time.”

“Damn right you do. First cooking lessons now this.”

“Thank you,” Tony said again with sincerity and Happy stopped his blustering.

“Guess I’ll just get you back in the ring then,” he responded, delivering a light jab to Tony’s shoulder, the good one not the bad, because Happy wasn’t that kind of guy, he always fought fairly.

“I look forward to it. I gotta head back before Howard blows something up.”

“So a normal day for you then?”

“Ha ha,” he said with a roll of his eyes. “Thank you, truly.”

One less thing to weigh on his mind. He pulled out his phone and brought up Peter’s message string as he turned back to enter the compound. He had to think of what to say to the kid so he wouldn’t think that this was some kind of an insult or a brush off. Tony really did miss him and want to spend time with him but his anxiety wouldn’t let this bout of paranoia.

_ Hey kid, you’re no bother, just a bit busy with Accords work and trying to bring the Avengers home.  _

_ In the meantime Happy is going to be running as your point guy for a while. Mission reports, questions, suit needs etc contact Happy and he’ll take care of it. You can still reach me but it will be harder for me to respond. Please don’t stress Hap out. I’ve seen his cardiograms. _

_ And everyone knows Han shot first. _

_ T.S. _

* * *

Happy memories, happy memories. He could do happy memories couldn’t he?

Howard paced back and forth in the lab, with an either playful or just as confused DUM-E mimicking his actions as he walked the length of the room. The little bot was growing on Howard but it was a pain trying not to trip over him as he often forgot just how wide a berth he needed to maneuver the small space.

The glasses had been ready for Howard for nearly half an hour now but choosing a memory had been the hardest part so far. It wasn’t like he had been devoid of any good moments in his lifetime, but it was more like finding any that were actually worth going through and experiencing again, like what Tony had shown him with Pepper. A happy and special moment that he had probably replayed in his mind over and over for years. 

The day he met Maria and the day they got married ranked pretty high on his list of relivable moments. The day Tony was born, no matter what the man may think now, also did, ranking as one of the scariest and yet most exhilarating moments of his life. The moment they put his son in his arms was better than any high he had got from completing an invention or helping Peggy take down bad guys. He hadn’t wanted to put the boy down.

Howard’s pacing finally stopped and DUM-E squeaked to a stop beside him and clacked his prongs together in question. He had the memory though. The happy one that he would often look back and think fondly of when life became too stressful and hard.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” he spoke to himself as he took his place in what he and Tony had deemed their practice arena and placed the glasses on his face. He clicked the button on the side like he had before only this time a brief retinal scan occurred first, followed by a small greeting on the lens.

_ Welcome Howard. Press to activate. _

Howard breathed in and out deeply, concentrating on that memory, how he felt, what he saw, what he heard. When he was finally ready, the memory held clearly at the front of his mind he used another click of the button on the side of the glasses, activating them. This time he was ready when the world went white.

* * *

It was April of 1974. The Stark Expo was still a couple of months away. Howard had just discovered a new element but had no way to feasibly synthesize it or make it more than numbers on his paper.

Howard sat in his office, sleeves rolled up, tie long forgotten as his collar hung open and loose. His office window hung up, the cool breeze of a midnight spring storm rolling through the room, every now and then little drops of rain would blow onto his face but he wouldn’t close the window. Spring storms had always been his favorite since he was a kid. There was just something so relaxing about how smoothly they rolled in with that reviving rainy musk, the way the thunder would gently rumble as the lightning lit up bits of the sky. The weight of the day would melt away, leaving him boneless in his chair more so than any glass of whiskey could. 

He glanced at the half full glass on his desk wanting to feel the burn as he threw it back, but it would be his third glass tonight if he did. He wasn’t anywhere close to being drunk, years as a borderline high functioning alcoholic had set his tolerance pretty high, but he was trying to resist the temptation of more tonight. Almost four years ago he had made a promise to Maria and to his newborn son that he would stop drinking, easier said than done unfortunately, but he had managed to bring it down to two glasses a night which was a definite improvement from his past. His mind though was so stressed about figuring out this new element. Howard was right on the cusp of discovery and he just couldn’t reach the damn finish line. What was one more glass really?

The lightning flashed brightly, illuminating the office before a booming thunder slowly unfurled, enough to rattle the windows. That was when Howard heard a little gasp coming from the hallway. His office door was hanging open, the light illuminating the patch of hallway in front, and if he looked closely he could just make out the small shadow, wriggling in the otherwise darkness.

Howard sat up in his chair trying to get a better look.

“Tony?” he called out loud enough to travel to the little boy that he knew was waiting outside of his door. Normally during storms he ended up with Maria or Jarvis, but his wife was out of town and Jarvis further down the hall. He had either stopped because he saw the office light and hadn't wanted Howard to see him pass or he was building up to seeking him out. 

Slowly, a messy mop of hair poked around the doorway followed by his son’s small form wearing his Jetson’s pajamas with the little feet. People sometimes thought that Howard was made of stone but that wasn’t true, not really and this moment was proof as Howard couldn’t help but crack a small grin at the boy.

“Why aren’t you in bed, son?”

The little boy shrugged his shoulders once and chewed on his bottom lip. The lightning flashed again and Tony flinched.

“Is it the storm?” he tried again, gently.

The thunder rolled as Tony nodded his head yes, hair flopping wildly and then seemingly made his decision when the windows rattled again, taking off in a run to his father and hurriedly climbing up his lap, swinging his arms around his father’s neck tightly as he tucked his face in against him.

For a moment, Howard didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t that he had never held his son before but that usually involved transporting his sleeping form from the car or from between him and Maria and back to his room. He wasn’t the one that Tony normally sought for this type of comfort. Even as a baby he had always been a bit of a mama’s boy which was fine, Howard had a lot of work to do and to have his son dependent on himself would only be cruel. 

He let his hands hover over the little boy for another moment before wrapping them around his body, one hand moving to hold the back of his head and run carefully through his tangled curls. He leaned back into his chair again and adjusted Tony on his lap making them both more comfortable. Howard didn’t know what to say to really bring the boy comfort so he just started with the first thing that came to mind...science.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of Tony. Thunderstorms are just caused from moisture in the air. That moisture forms big, dark, heavy cumulonimbus clouds and then the air from the Atlantic or the Sound will mix with the warm air and drive the clouds higher and eventually it will start to storm. This storm is almost over, want to know how I know?”

“Cause you’re really smart,” the little boy mumbled into his shirt.

Howard chuckled lightly. “I am a little bit but so are you so the next time you see lightning I want you to count until it thunders again.”

Tony nodded his head obediently and they turned in the chair to face the window. When the flash of lightning went by Tony began.

_ One mississippi...two mississippi...three mississippi… _

The thunder rumbled in the distance only this time the windows didn’t shake.

“Good, now remember that and do it again and you’ll see it’s moving away,” Howard said, patting the boys back.

The lightning flashed and Tony’s head perked up, staring out the window at the night sky as he resumed his countdown.

_ One mississippi...two mississippi...three mississippi…four mississippi...five mississippi... _

And the thunder rolled. 

Tony turned to Howard with a big toothy grin and Howard grinned back. 

“I told ya. Now, like I said, there’s nothing to be scared of because it’s going away. Next time you’re worried in bed just start counting.”

Tony dove back in against Howard’s chest and hugged him tighter than before. “Thanks for making it go away.”

Howard went to correct him but Tony cut him off before he could respond. 

“I love you, Dad,” he whispered softly, burrowing in against the man like he couldn’t get close enough.

Howard found himself at a loss of words for the second time that night, and it was a long time before he found his voice again because Tony was already softly snoring against him, his little body rising and falling with each deep breath. Howard squeezed his son tighter and finally whispered back, “I love you too, son.”

He spent most of the night clinging to his son as the storm slowly faded into the distance. Only after his back began screaming out in pain did he finally stand with the little boy in tow, but even then he walked around his office just enjoying the comforting weight of his son against him as he patted and rubbed his back.

At that moment nothing else mattered. Not Obie, not Shield, not that stupid element he hadn’t quite figured out, his desire for another drink. 

It was just Howard and Tony. He felt proud that his son had come to him and that he was able to set his mind at ease, to be that protector. He closed his eyes and breathed his son in, soaking up the moment for all it was. 

* * *

The light faded from the room as the memory ended, Howard slowly removing the glasses from his face. He pinched his fingers together between his eyes but this time it had nothing to do with a headache or migraine, the glasses really did work much better now that they were coded to him, he didn’t feel any different. Iinstead he found himself sniffing and wiping away a bit of moisture that had formed in the corner of his eyes, as he mourned the loss of that familiar weight against him. 

He had to make things right with his boy. He had to show him that he had always cared.

“I love you son,” he whispered to himself quietly as the last bit of the simulation faded away.

* * *

Tony ducked back from the doorway, heart pounding as the simulation ended. He’d stopped off in the kitchen for one of his green smoothies and even thought to make one for Howard. Instead of using the elevator though he had been taking his time, accessing the lab from the emergency stairwell, pondering the Peter situation, the Avengers and Ross. His heart ached for Pepper to talk it over with but she was in meetings all day and she wasn’t due back from Malibu until tomorrow.

That was when he had seen it. Howard’s memory of him and the storm. He had completely forgotten.

That warm feeling began to unfurl from his heart again as Howard whispered back those words he had waited to hear his entire life, and they had been there seemingly from the start. He wondered just how many other times Howard had whispered those words in his ear without him knowing. 

“I love you, Dad.”

* * *

Pepper was exhausted as she made her way through the darkened compound. She held her heels in one hand because fuck it all if her feet weren’t killing her already after a long day of running back and forth between meetings and of course she had been in such a whirlwind go mode that she hadn’t remembered to pack some flats in her carry on. 

Everything was dark when she entered hers and Tony’s room and she was a little surprised to find that he was already in the bed and had been for some time given the gentle snores echoing in the room. She smiled softly at his figure before changing into some pajamas, one of Tony’s old MIT t-shirts and some sweats. She didn’t even bother with her makeup even though she was sure that she would look like a raccoon in the morning time. 

Gently she lifted the comforter and slipped between the top sheet and the mattress and snuggled up behind Tony, his back pressed into her front. His skin was hot as always, you could stick the man in Antarctica and he’d still run hot she was convinced, but he felt good against her, the night air cold from the air conditioning. 

She knew that she should really let him sleep. It was 1:41am after all and clearly if he was already in bed, then it had been a long day. Usually when she was gone he’d go on work binges or pass out in the lab. Still. It had been almost four days since she had last seen him and coming off of that break, she wasn’t happy to have been parted for any length. 

Easing herself forward she looped her arm over his side to run up and down his bare chest, her fingers following along his scars and gently kneading into him as she placed light kisses at the back of his neck. 

Awareness slowly flickered over his features as he began to rouse.

“Hey sleepyhead,” she whispered, as his eyes blinked open a few times before turning gently towards her.

“You're here...Pep...I thought you weren’t back til tomorrow,” he mumbled, groggily, reaching his hands up to try and wipe the sleep from his eyes. 

“I missed you,” she offered up simply. “Private jets have their perks.”

“”They dooooo,” he smiled and snuggled back against her, willing folding himself further into being the small spoon. 

“How was everything here? Everyone okay?”

“Fine,” he waved off and yawned. “Was having a strange dream though.”

“That’s not unusual,” she teased. Sometimes Tony dreamed about schematics and ideas, even sleep bringing him no rest from work. The ideas would pan out every now and again but sometimes they were just as crazy as the dream they were born into. 

“Do you think I’d be a good dad?”

Pepper flinched away from him in surprise. Where was this coming from? He seemed to feel her move back and he folded their hands together against his chest. 

“I don’t mean I have a kid or that I want a kid now. I was just- it was on my mind. Just some things I saw with Howard…”

Well, that explained it then.

“Of course you’d be a great father. You love with your whole heart.”

He scoffed at the sappy answer but she meant it. When Tony cared about a person he loved them fiercely and would do anything for them. His loyalty was astounding. She had also known him for a very long time and she knew all about his “charity events” by which he meant that he was going to the children’s hospital to hold babies and talk to the sick kids, usually bringing plenty of gifts for all of them. He was surprisingly a natural. She wondered how much of that had been from growing up around Rhodey’s extended family and how much was simply instinct. Either way, she was pretty sure that any child would have Tony wrapped around their finger. 

“Besides,” she said, nudging him. “I think we’re supposed to be married before we worry about any babies.”

“Marriage then babies. Got it. How does four sound? Nice even number. I always wanted siblings, so it could be so lonely growing up.”

“Tony,” she cut him off. “Go back to bed. I’m sorry I even woke you up now,” though the fondness in her tone betrayed her. 

“You sure? We could try for one right now.”

She didn’t even need to see his face to know he had his eyebrows raised suggestively. Her silence said all she needed and Tony laughed softly, the vibration flowing rhythmically through her. 

“Fine, I know when I am not wanted,” he teased.

“You’re wanted, but like I said...marriage before babies.”

“So you want to get married?”

Pepper froze. Was he being serious?

“Doesn’t every girl?” 

“I don’t know, you’re not every girl,” he replied, expertly cutting through the non answer. 

“I do...eventually.”

He smiled. “Good to know.” Tony turned in her arms and studied her face for a moment before placing a gentle kiss to her lips. “What would you have done if I kissed you that night on the rooftop?”

Man he was switching gears today. She was really going to need to get a full report from Friday on everything that had gone down since she had been gone. 

“Kissed you back,” she responded honestly. She had been equal parts relieved and disappointed that night on the non kiss, but of course before she could fully sort through her feelings Tony had ditched her and then he was flying in a metal death trap taking down terrorists. Still. In her dreams he had closed that gap and it had been amazing.

“Good,” he smiled and kissed her again a little longer this time.

“What brought this on?”

He shook his head no. “I’ll show you tomorrow,” he grinned and burrowed his head against her chest. “I really do love you, ya know? I'm sorry if I didn’t...don’t say it enough. I've always loved you.”

She ran her hand through his hair and smiled. “I know. And I love you too.”


	21. The Proposal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Monday everyone! I hope that everyone is doing well and continuing to keep safe!
> 
> So let me go ahead and preface this chapter by saying thank you to everyone who has commented or left kudos or bookmarked this story. It has absolutely meant the world to me over the last five months. I mean we'e at over 850 kudos. My brain shuts down every time I see that number! And it's because of you guys and you are all just amazing. 
> 
> Moving on - I just wanted to give you a heads up that we're in the endgame (not that one) now. I'm thinking maybe 5-7 more chapters remain on this journey depending on how wordy I get. That being said, I was hoping to open this story up as a series; offering some oneshots for this universe and how it changes things for IW and Endgame (or doesn't change things). In that respect I would also maybe be interested in opening this world up to prompts from you the readers if there is any interest. Please don't send anything yet, but if you could let me know your thoughts in the comments below, if you'd like to see further installments in this world etc that would be a huge help. <3
> 
> Last note, a little self promo, i posted a new short oneshot in case anyone is interested revolving around a claustrophobic Tony in probably the worst situation a claustrophobic person could be in, in case that bit of whump piques your interest.
> 
> Okay, all done I promise! I hope you enjoy, stay safe and leave me your thoughts down below!

_August 24th, 2016_

“Is it really necessary that we do all of this ourselves? I mean isn’t that why I have money to pay people to do this?” Tony groaned for the thousandth time that morning as he went through his and Pepper’s shared closet at the compound. 

Tomorrow was moving day and coincidentally the day that the Rogue Avengers were finally being restored and returned “home.” It happened as Natasha had said that it would. The council was willing to pardon the actions of the team providing that they remain at the Avenger’s Compound for a probationary period of six months and also covered the costs of the damages done in Leipzig and Bucharest during the apprehension and attempted apprehension of Bucky and Cap to the tune of eighty-six million dollars. 

At first Tony had been sure that he was going to be the one that was stuck footing the bill again, when T’Challa agreed to pay half for his part in the chase against the now innocent Barnes. A bold move coming from a country that was supposedly not very wealthy. When Tony asked him about it following the final hearing he just offered a bright white smile.

“Not everything is as it seems with Wakanda. We are a proud people but as King it is my responsibility to admit when I have made a mistake and do all I can to rectify it. I was wrong in my vengeance.”

Still. Forty-three million dollars was nothing to sniff his nose about and it only cemented his decision more to take a break from the team. Financially, as well as personally. The UN would be helping to fund the team now, much to the board at Stark Industries’ great relief he was sure. Every time the Avengers messed up the stock always took a bit of a dip.

“Careful Tony, your privilege is showing,” Pepper teased, from the other end of the closet as she went through the rack for things to bring back to the Penthouse.

It wasn’t like they would never be returning to the Compound but Stark Tower would be their new primary residence for the foreseeable future, and so they needed to pack up everything that they normally used for the switch. Normally, they had a second set of anything they needed already but a lot of that had made its way over to the Compound either after the break, neither one of them wanting to stay in the penthouse of the tower they had built together, alone.

“I have always hated packing, ask Rhodey. I couldn’t even be bothered to throw clothes in a backpack when I went home with him to Philly in college. I’d always end up in his old hand me downs that Mama would force me into,” he said, absently pulling t-shirts off of hangers and tossing them in the general direction of the bed. 

“Well, maybe you could get rid of some of these while you’re at it.”

Tony gasped and brought a hand up to grasp at his chest dramatically. “Are you implying that I have too many clothes?”

Pepper laughed. “I’m pretty sure your half of the closet pretty much eclipses mine.”

Tony folded his hands across his chest and jutted his chin out defiantly. “If I have too many clothes then you definitely have too many shoes.”

“Oh please. I at least have this many because I actually wear them all and have coordinating outfits. I’m pretty sure you would never change your clothes if I didn’t remind you. Besides, in addition to your not wearing those clothes, you also have multiple shirts of the same thing.”

Tony scoffed in mock offense and Pepper just shrugged her shoulders as he turned away mumbling under his breath about the multiple number of high heels she had in different colors. 

He tossed a few more shirts to the pile. Scattered about the foot of the bed and the surrounding floor were shirts and jeans alike, ready to be folded by Pepper and her need for organization and put away. The suits he left hanging up. Those he _did_ have an entire closet of, but there was only one AC/DC 1986 “Who Made Who” concert shirt from when he and Rhodey went to see them years ago. He held the shirt fondly in his hands reminiscing and then tossed it towards the bed as well, grabbing for the next shirt...an AC/DC 1986 “Who Made Who” concert shirt…huh. He examined it and found the hole in the collar and remembered this was Rhodey’s shirt. He should probably return it. 

“I rest my case,” Pepper said, hip bumping him as she walked past with a box of shoes. 

He reached out for her then, catching her by the elbow and making her drop the box onto the floor, Jimmy Choos and Louboutins spilling across the floor. Before she could offer more than a token protest, Tony had his lips pressed against hers in a kiss, releasing her arm in favor of holding her hips and bringing them in close against his. Pepper’s own arms snaked around Tony’s neck, her fingers running through his hair gently at first and then pulling the strands teasingly. They pulled apart after another moment, hearts beating faster and breathing a little heavier. Tony rested his forehead against Pepper’s and nuzzled her nose in an eskimo kiss. 

His voice was low and breathy, a little more gone than normal. “What do you say we continue this conversation in the bedroom about clothing and how yours would look so much better on my floor?” He nipped delicately at her bottom lip ready to pick up where they left off but to his dismay Pepper laughed, loud and boisterously and he made a sound of discontent in the back of his throat as he pulled away.

“Very clever, you use that on all the girls?”

“Trust me, my days of being a pick up artist are long over.” He couldn’t help but to smile back at her then and maybe a little more sincerely than jokingly respond, “You’re my only girl.”

Pepper’s eyes twinkled in the setting sun of their room as her smile went from wide and laughing to content and just...happy. “I know.”

She leaned forward this time and kissed him sweet and softly, his eyes closing involuntarily against the reverence and love he felt for this incredible woman. 

God he was going to marry her one day.

Sooner rather than later.

In a flash the kiss ended and Pepper was disentangling herself from Tony’s arms. “You’re still picking those up by the way,” she pointed to the box of spilled shoes. 

“Yes ma’am,” he mumbled obediently and bent down to his knees to pick up the mess he made.

“How’s Peter doing? I haven’t seen him around here in awhile,” she asked, walking around him and moving to pick up the mess of clothes scattered on the floor. 

Tony gritted his teeth unconsciously. He honestly hadn’t talked to Peter in probably way too long. Happy had taken to his duties of being Peter’s liaison with the same diligence he took to all other matters. He knew that Peter was blowing up his phone daily with mission reports and general chatter; all this being forwarded to Tony to review at the end of the day but Tony hadn’t spoken to him directly since that day he put Happy in charge. 

It made him cringe every time he thought about it. He had been the one to bring the kid into the fold and promise him mentoring in his regular life and the superhero side and he was failing the kid. He hoped that with school starting last week that it would have eased the guilt there a bit because he could convince himself that the kid was too busy anyways, what with academic decathlon and band and robotics, not to mention regular homework and Spiderman duties. He surely didn’t even miss Tony.

The increasingly wary texts about the radio silence from Tony’s end though showed otherwise.

“Fine. He’s just uh, been really busy with school stuff.”

“Oh well, he goes to Midtown so I’m sure they do keep him busy. Once we’re back in the city hopefully it’ll be easier for you guys to see each other, I know you miss having another crazy scientist type besides Howard to work with.”

Tony just mumbled and offered a one shoulder shrug as he stood up with her box of shoes and placed them on the bed. Pepper evaluated him carefully, her eyes narrowing as she took in his features and body language.

“Doesn’t he have a birthday coming up?”

“August 27th,” Tony replied a little too quickly before trying to cover his mistake with a hem and cough. “I mean, yeah I think so.”

Pepper’s lips just turned up in a knowing smirk but she knew better than to tease Tony about Peter of all people. Tony was fond of the kid in that way she rarely ever saw from him and it melted something in her heart to see him get so invested in someone else. 

“Well, being as Peter is our first official high school intern, I think Stark Industries would be remiss if we didn’t celebrate his birthday in some fashion. Maybe have him come over to the tower and we can buy a cake, take some pictures. Do some good PR.”

Tony hesitated. “Uhhh. I’m not so sure that’s the best idea with everything going on with the Avengers and Ross…”

“That’s why it’s the perfect thing to do,” she interrupted and reached out to turn his face in her hand and look into her eyes. “It’s a nice break for you from all the hard work you’ve been doing with your father and for the team. Trust me.”

Well when she put it like that and scratched her fingers through his beard, how the heck was Tony supposed to resist that?

“I’ll send him a message but I’m telling you the kid is crazy busy. Us genius types can’t ever stay idle, believe you me.”

It turns out Peter was extraordinarily _NOT_ busy on his birthday. Aunt May always let him take his birthday off from school and celebrate in the mornings with a big breakfast (pancakes, Tony had been told, were about all she had ever mastered), and then cake and ice cream and silly movies until she had to go to work her shift at the hospital in the evenings. 

_What about spending time with your friend Ted?_

Tony had texted in response to Peter’s trademarked rapid fire text messages.

_Oh we normally hang out on the weekend after my birthday. I’m totally free in the evening._

_This will actually be pretty awesome!_

_I was just going to do extra Spidey stuff anyways._

“Well, I guess you have a party to plan,” Tony huffed, collapsing backwards across the bed and closing his eyes.

“Told ya you guys could make time for each other,” Pepper said gently coming to lay beside him, her head on his chest. 

“Do you want to hear an ‘I told you so’ because it’s not going to happen, I already know you’re the smartest person in the room.”

Pepper hummed in thought for a moment, the vibrations tickling across his chest. “No, but I’ve given some more thought to your proposition about my clothes looking better on the floor..”

His eyes shot open as he perked up, a smile curling on his lips. “Oh, you have?”

“Mmhmm,” she nodded, sitting up to meet Tony’s eyes and seeing the same fire reflected from her own. “Now I’m not sure anything Valentino should end up on the floor but…” she began and tugged at his faded t-shirt, “...this would definitely look better elsewhere.”

She leaned in and kissed him then, this time slow and sweet, drawing it out and making him chase after her when she pulled away. He narrowed his eyes at her then, her words slowly catching up to where his brain had disconnected. 

“I’m pretty sure you just vaguely insulted me and my style for like the third time today but I’ll allow it this once since you’re so cute.”

With a swipe of his hand he cleared the bed of the few bits of clothing that had actually made it to their destination and back to the floor went Pepper’s box of shoes, her protests at their treatment silenced once more by a kiss.

* * *

Freshly showered, freshly motivated, Tony emerged later that evening to check on the rest of the Compound residents. He’d had Friday put in an order for takeout at his favorite Hibachi Steakhouse for everyone and Happy and Rhodey would be back soon with the pick up, so that really only left him to check up on his parents. 

They hadn’t had much in a way of possessions aside from what had been ordered for them when they arrived and the little bits that they’d brought back from the Long Island mansion, so it shouldn’t have been very difficult for them to have everything ready. Still. He wanted to be certain that everything was ready for them to go. They would be departing with Happy and Rhodey early in the morning, long before the Avengers scheduled afternoon arrival so they wouldn’t run the risk of being seen by prying eyes.

“Knock, knock, is everyone decent? I don’t need to add to my list of trauma,” Tony called through the door and knocked in quick succession. 

The door was opened after a moment and he smiled wide and innocently at his mother even as she looked at him with mild exasperation. “Why do you always think you’re entering a den of iniquity when you knock at our door?”

“Just don’t want to take any chances, I don’t know what you guys get up to when I’m not around.”

“Well, don’t worry, we save it all up for kinky Fridays, right Howard?” she asked, turning back to enter their room. 

Tony could make Howard out on the bed reading a book and while he never looked up once from the page, he offered a perfunctory, “Yes, dear,” but Tony could see the ghost of a smile as he turned the page.

“Well, whatever floats your boat, just don’t break a hip and I’ll remain far, far away from kinky Fridays.”

“I assume this visit has a purpose other than to poke fun at your elders?” Howard questioned finally folding the book shut and Tony was able to glimpse the title; _From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor: Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War_ by Jerry Della Femina.

“Good book?”

“Enlightening.”

Tony shrugged. “Just coming by to see if you guys are good to go for tomorrow. Happy and Rhodey are out grabbing dinner but when they get back I figured we’d go over the game plan.”

Maria nodded and indicated a small set of boxes, neatly stacked and ready to go in the corner of the room. The rest of the room looked as impersonal as it had when Tony had first shown them to it two months ago. “Your father is an efficient packer.”

“Well, years of Shield taught me that you never know when you might have to make a hasty retreat. Of course, we were always ready.”

A memory came to Tony then. His father and Jarvis came into his room while he was playing with Ana, grim expressions on their faces as they went to Tony’s closet and pulled out a small blue suitcase from the top shelf and ushering him and Ana from the room. 

“To answer your question though, yes, everything is in order,” Howard interrupted his thoughts.

Tony shook the strange memory from his mind and refocused on the present. “I’m sorry, about all this.” His mother looked at him questioningly and he hurried to explain himself. “I just mean, you guys had just gotten settled in here and now you’re being uprooted again. I promise though this is the last move.”

Maria looked to Howard then and Tony didn’t miss the conversation that passed between their eyes. 

“What?”

Maria said nothing, just turned back towards him and kissed his cheek. “I’m going to go help, Pepper. Lord knows you have probably never had to pack a day in your life,” she teased and patted his cheeks gently, shooting Howard another look over her shoulder as she made her exit.

“Okaaaay, what was that about and why do I feel like I’m not going to like it?” he asked, coming to sit down on the chair near the bed. 

“Your mother and I have been talking,” Howard began, sitting up straighter on the bed, “and we...appreciate all that you have done for us.”

“But?”

“We think it may be time to announce that we’re alive.”

“I knew I wasn’t going to like it.”

“It’s nothing personal, son, but we need to start really living again. It has been amazing seeing the Compound and what you have built for yourself but we would like to get back out into the world as well. Your mother is a very social person, she doesn’t do well being locked away. We understand the world is different and not many of our friends are still around, but it would be nice all the same to not have to sneak around with everything we do and be able to just be seen.”

Howard held his hands out in front of him in concession, settling back against the headboard of the bed once more, but keeping his eyes locked on Tony’s while he waited for his response.

Tony wasn’t exactly surprised. They both had been dropping little hints about the possibilities for the last few weeks and Tony understood where they were coming from, he really did. There was no worse feeling than one of feeling trapped, and one day when he wasn’t having to look over the proverbial shoulder for Ross he would let them scream their presence to the world. Until that day though, it just wasn’t safe.

“I understand. I would love to have you guys free to live your lives.” That was a lie he realized as he said it. Not that he didn’t want them to be able to live their lives but the implications that brought with it. The new dangers. His enemies could go after them. Hydra could make another attempt. Ross would love to have something to hold over him. Even old dangers and fears lurked beneath the surface, something as innocuous as a car accident actually killing them. It made him shaky just thinking of all the different ways his parents could be taken from him again. 

It’s just...you don’t understand Secretary Ross, Howard. The man is a monster and until I can get him put behind bars I don’t think it would be a good idea to make a grand declaration to the general public. He hunted my friend, Bruce, for sport for years,” his voice faltered remembering the horror stories and close calls his friend had confided in him. “It’s just not safe right now.”

Howard pursed his lips and cocked his head to the side as if he had expected as much. Tony thought that he might fight him on this, he had gotten his stubborn nature from somewhere of course, but instead he saw understanding in his father’s eyes.

“I’ve known men like him that stop at nothing,” he spoke with an unexpected fierceness that left Tony with no doubt that he was telling the truth.

“Then you understand the position I’m in.”

“I do. I think we can wait a bit longer, so long as we keep it on the table.”

“Of course,” Tony agreed. He wasn’t their jailer. 

“I’ll speak to your mother. She’ll understand.”

“Because she’s used to this sort of thing?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Tony wondered just how many times his mother had to deal with some outside threat from Howard’s relationship with Shield or just in general, being the wife of a powerful weapons developer. He knew first hand how much higher one's enemies were than friends in that position.

“Well, since she is out of the room for now anyways, I did want to speak to you about something else,” Tony said, taking a steadying breath as his mind switched gears.

“Is this about our BARF sessions?”

“Oh, no. We’ll keep working with BARF at the tower as usual though, no service interruptions there,” he joked awkwardly, becoming increasingly unsettled where he sat and squirming in the chair. “No, this is a little more of a selfish reason.”

Howard leaned forward. “I'm listening.”

He and Howard had begun to get much better at communicating over the last few weeks but it was still awkward as hell having an intimate conversation with the man. Everything from what he learned as a child screamed at him that Howard didn’t care or want to hear about what was going on in his mind, so it was a struggle to fight back against that conditioning and reteach himself. He would open his mouth and no words would come, or he would stutter and stammer like a fool until he finally got a grip. 

“How-” he faltered and let loose a deep breath, squaring his shoulders and facing his father once more, Howard waiting patiently for him to compose himself. “Howdidyouproposetomom?” Tony finally huffed out all in one breath.

Howard’s forehead creased in thought as he deciphered what Tony was saying. “How did I propose?” he repeated slowly.

“Yes.”

A small smile began to creep across the older man’s lips. “Are you going to propose to Pepper?”

“No. Well. Yes, eventually,” Tony corrected, feeling his heart speed up just thinking about it. “I was just trying to get some feedback and unfortunately I don’t have an overabundance of married guys to draw knowledge from around here. It’s just that Pepper isn’t very keen on grand romantic gestures and I’m an idiot, so that’s the only thing I know how to do. So, I was trying to go for a more subdued approach and I’m way out of my league here.” he admitted, begrudgingly.

Howard chuckled but didn’t rib him like Tony thought he might, instead he leaned back and crossed his arms against his chest, mouth open in a relaxed smile as he conjured up the memory. 

“Subtlety has never particularly been a Stark attribute.”

“So, I should expect no help from you?” he questioned with a wry grin.

“I didn’t say that.”

Tony gestured for the man to continue. 

“Lets just say that I had it all planned out, from the outfits, to the lighting and music, down to the second that I would ask her. It was her birthday and all her friends were coming, your Grandfather had already given his blessing and he brought the whole family, Great Grandma Carbonell, that brute of a cousin Leo. Her favorite string quartet would be there to do the music, her mother was coordinating for her favorite dinner. Everything that I knew that she would love.”

“And?”

“I completely botched it. I left the ring at the house, I forgot what I was going to say to her, the perfect song came and went, her cousin Leo got drunk off of the champagne and tried to start a fight with a board member over the cellist and I made the mistake of getting in between them and ended up with a bloody nose, ruined my suit,” he shook his head, lost in the memory.

“Doesn’t sound like the debonair Howard Stark you were made out to be.”

“No, far from it in fact but it was probably the realest version of myself I had ever been. Your mother has always been able to bring that side out of me.”

Tony could relate to that.He never had to worry about being anyone else around Pepper.

“So, we’re in the kitchen, blood all over my shirt and nose and your mother is holding this ice pack on my nose and just using every italian curse under the sun and she just looked so stunning, all flushed and her face all pinched up in concern and I just said, marry me.”

“And she went for that?”

“Well, she called me an idiot first and only _after_ we were sure my nose wasn’t broken she said yes, and laughed her ass off when I told her everything I went through to get to that moment. She didn’t need all that, the fancy party with her family, the music, the food, the champagne, she told me. Just an honest, simple moment alone. I’m not saying not to do something nice, but I’m sure as long as you’re true to who you are together, there’s no way she won’t say yes. Just don’t get anymore advice from bikers maybe?” he referenced the ten foot bunny advice. 

Howard hadn’t been able to get over the bunny since Tony had made the mistake to tell him about it and then Pepper added fuel to the fire and showed off a picture of the monstrosity. Even his mother had politely tried to hide her cringe.

“Honest. Simple. I can do that.”

Howard leaned over and picked his book back up and opened it to where he had left off. 

“I certainly look forward to seeing you try, kid.”

* * *

The next morning came and went easily. 

The night before Tony and Rhodey had loaded everything up that needed to be moved. The bots and any tech Tony wanted to bring with him from the lab had already been moved. When the rest of their belongings reached the tower there would be people to help bring everything to one of each of the vacant floors that once housed the team. 

Rhodey was becoming quite proficient with his braces, able to wear them for several hours at a time now though he had a slight limp to his gait and moved slower than normal. Still he was determined to push himself as far as he could but Tony still took the heavier or unusual boxes himself.

Tony stood outside of the compound after they left, his parents in a casual wear disguise once more, and watched as long as he could as the vehicle grew further and further into the distance before finally disappearing behind the tree line, no JSOC crews or anyone else popping out to stop them. He let out a soft breath of relief and prepared for the next most difficult part of the day, the return of the team.

Pepper graciously remained with him in the compound and further proved to be a grounding presence at his side when the team actually landed. 

Steve and Natasha arrived via a Wakandan transport with Vision, but the rest of the team aside from Scott and Clint who had cut retirement deals and were already at home, were accompanied by Ross and his team. 

Ross exited the transport with a fat cigar in his mouth reminding Tony so much of the way Obidiah and how he would use his full height and smoking to cut an intimidating figure. The man nodded his head at Tony as the team began to file out. Pepper reached over and clutched Tony’s hand in solidarity, adding strength to his side.

Steve reached them first and he looked completely different. His hair and beard had grown out in his exile in Wakanda but mostly what struck Tony was the worry lines that had formed and the dark circles under his eyes. Tony knew that the man had been with Bucky around the clock, the young princess of Wakanda and her team were dedicated to finding a way to erase the programming that Hydra had instilled. Tony was working with them too remotely, trying to repurpose his BARF program to assist. So far there had only been minor success, not enough for him to safely return though and it was clearly eating away at Steve. 

Still. The man had signed the Accords, agreed to leave Bucky in Wakanda’s care until he was safe to rejoin society. 

“Tony,” he nodded wearily and stuck out his hand for him to shake. 

Tony hesitated only a moment, feeling a small resurgence of annoyance that Steve had been the reason that the Avengers had been brought so low in the first place, but then again if he hadn’t Tony might never have learned where his parents were. All of Peggy’s notes confirmed that they had been alive but not any solid location of where they could be. He put it aside and shook Steve’s hand firmly with the hand that wasn’t held by Pepper. 

“Steve.”

“How are...our friends doing?” he asked cautiously. Tony caught his drift immediately.

“Safe on vacation actually.”

“Good. I’m glad. I was worried they might get caught up,” he rolled his eyes towards Ross and his team, the man himself facing the other way and barking directions. 

“We were prepared.”

Natasha came up beside Steve then and reached over to give Pepper a hug and then surprisingly gave Tony a quick squeeze as well but then he felt her jam something into his pocket and whispered into his ear. 

“T’Challa wanted me to pass this along.”

She pulled away with a deceptive smile on her face and he tried to remain aloof and not overly concerned as the rest of the team gathered.

Vision stayed at Wanda’s side, keeping himself between her and Ross’ team and Sam coming to stand at Steve’s side.

“How’s Colonel Rhodes?” Sam asked with contrition. 

“Better. Back on his feet even, mostly.”

“Is he here? I’d like to extend my apology face to face if possible.”

“He’s on medical leave understandably, so he’s staying back in the city now. I’ll convey your wishes though.”

Sam seemed to accept this and deferred to Steve. “So, what now?”

“I can answer that,” came Ross’s gruff baritone voice. He was still smoking that cigar and the ashes fell and scattered to the ground, the smoke swirling around the group as he puffed along. “You may be out of the RAFT for now but you’re as good as mine still. You’ll remain at the compound and if you so much as take a step outside to piss I will hear about it and you’ll be in violation of your probation and on your way to disenfranchisement from the team and possibly a guest back with my team.”

“Do you really think that we’re scared of you or your team?” Natasha asked, nonchalantly with her eyebrow raised. She looked at Ross like he was a bug to be squashed under her foot. 

“Easy there Ms. Romanoff. You weren’t a guest of mine before. See to it that it stays that way or you will be very afraid, ask your witch,” he nodded towards Wanda, and Tony thought he saw red tendrils of magic forming at her fingertips before Vision stepped forward menacingly.

“Down boy,” Ross huffed, blowing out another cloud of smoke. “Just because you’re not under the same restrictions as the others doesn’t mean that I can’t make it happen.”

“You must be really stupid to stand here and threaten us,” Steve spoke up.

“Oh?” he turned to stand toe to toe with Steve despite Steve still having several inches on the Secretary. “And what are you going to do about it, Cap? I still don’t know how the hell you scraped by so easily after all the destruction you and your little friend caused.”

“Easy. He was innocent,” Steve responded.

“We’ll see.”

“Enough with the posturing, you’ve brought back my team and now it’s time to go. They already signed off on the terms of their probation. Cut your losses and move on Secretary,” Tony said, falling in between Natasha and Steve.

“You, you little prick. I hope you haven’t forgotten our previous conversation.”

“Oh the one where you accused me of harboring Cap and then left with your tail between your legs and a cease and desist harassment notice from my lawyers?” 

“I’ve got my eyes on you Stark, whether you’re with this team or not, remember that,” he finished with a sneer and dropped his cigar butt on the ground at Tony’s feet and turned around to board his transport with his team and leave.

The Avengers stood motionless, watching until the man was just a speck in the sky. He’d be back unfortunately for weekly check ins but it was a relief to have the man out of their sight for now.

“What did he mean whether you’re on the team or not?” Steve questioned without turnings his eyes away from the sky, like Ross would double back to start more trouble. He’d wanted to get a rise out of them, wanted them to slip up, but it wouldn’t be that easy.

Tony sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I’m taking a little break. A leave of absence if you will. I was already sort of on one after Ultron...this is just a little more official, sanctioned by the UN.”

“Tony, why?” Steve questioned and even had the nerve to appear a little hurt. The other Avengers except for Vision and Natasha seemed just as surprised. He was surprised that Steve was so slow on the uptake but as he thought before, the man looked exhausted, so he cut him some slack.

“I just need to take a step back to focus on the important aspects of my life that I’ve been neglecting. He took Pepper’s hand back in his then. “Going to focus on my job as the head of R&D for Stark Industries, my personal relationships. I’m helping Rhodey through physical therapy and some other mutual friends.”

Steve thankfully seemed to understand the implication and he nodded his head though his face was screaming that constipated look he got whenever he wasn’t a fan of a particular decision, but Tony’s choice had been made from the moment his parents stepped out into that Siberian hell hole. 

“Iron Man will still be around if you need him. You know how to get in touch with me.”

Natasha snorted. “Yeah a big spotlight in the sky right?”

“Only at night. In the daytime just have a skywriter go past the tower,” he winked.

“We’ll miss you,” Steve responded, still a pillar of sincerity. 

“You’ll do just fine,” Tony said and slapped the man on the chest.

* * *

Tony didn’t expect to feel any real sadness leaving the Compound. He had done it several times before but something about this trip felt more final, like the end of something. He caught himself looking back at it in the rear view mirror with an ache in the middle of his chest where the arc reactor used to be and he took a hand off the steering wheel to rub at it.

“You okay?” Pepper asked, knowingly, because she always could sense whatever he was feeling.

He glanced over at her and the ache faded from his chest, replaced with a swelling of love and adoration. The knowledge that he’d do anything for this woman beside him, including going to hell and back if he had to. He wondered then if this was one of those moments that Howard was talking about where he was his best true self, so overwhelmed with love for Pepper that nothing else seemed to matter. 

Butterflies began to swirl in his stomach and his heart picked up its pace as he thought about asking her those four little words, the words he had wanted to speak to her since he stepped foot off that damn air force plane from Afghanistan and she stood there red eyed waiting for him. She was always waiting for him. 

He opened his mouth to speak but the words were caught in his throat. He struggled to say something, anything at this point so he didn’t look like a complete head case. 

“Fine. I’m fine,” he finally gritted out, hating every single wrong syllable that came flowing out. 

Pepper didn’t seem entirely convinced but enough to let the subject drop. She leaned over and kissed his cheek and then leaned back in her seat. “I love you,” she said and pulled out her StarkPad and brought up her email.

“I love you too,” he responded softly.

He hoped she didn’t mind waiting just a little bit longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, Tony you disaster man. Just. Ask. :)


	22. The Mystery from Wakanda

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! So sorry that I didn't get a chapter posted last week. I had to completely rework an integral plot point that wasn't working and just was not able to get everything done in time. 
> 
> The chapter that I have for you this week is sadly shorter than what you're probably used to because once I got the plot point figured out I still found myself with writer's block from hell but I wanted to have something posted for you guys this week no matter what! 
> 
> Also thanks for the overwhelming positivity on continuing this as a series. I think that will definitely be the plan going forward. I'll give more information on that soon!
> 
> I hope everyone is staying safe. I love you all. <3 Let me know what you think in the comments as always. <3

_ May 29, 1970 _

Howard stared at the phone where it sat in its cradle, his eyes fixed and unmoving as his mind tried to process what was happening. 

It was finally time.

Nine months that had felt like a lifetime to his beautiful wife, full of all the aches, cravings and discomforts of pregnancy, all compiled upon the fact that she was already three days past her due date; she was more than ready for this day to arrive.

To Howard though, the arrival of his child had come all too fast, feeling like it had come in the blink of an eye and for the first time he felt frozen in place, which seemed ridiculous. He had faced down the Nazi's in WW2, including Hydra in the intervening years, dealt with politicians, government agencies and all manner of criminals through Shield, but it was the thought of going down to the hospital, to see this tiny infant that was half of him that had him rooted to the spot, unable to breathe.

He reached down to the bottom of his drawer and pulled out the half drank bottle of whiskey he kept stashed beneath a stack of files, a dirty secret that wasn’t so secret to everyone who knew him best. The tumbler was still stashed in the same spot as well and he placed both items on the large mahogany desk and poured at first a small measure of whiskey, then a larger amount after brief consideration. 

Howard had just raised the glass to his lips when there was a brief knock to the door and then Jarvis popped his head in the door. 

“Sir, there you are,” he spoke with a relieved sigh. “We have to go, Ana and Ms. Carter are at the hospital with Mrs. Stark already.”

When Howard made no move to get up from his desk Jarvis frowned and entered the room further, approaching Howard cautiously like a skittish animal that might runaway at the slightest provocation. 

“Is everything alright?” he tried again, his eyes falling over the glass of whiskey and bottle that still sat atop the desk, only a small amount gone from Howard’s aborted sip. “This doesn’t seem like the celebration I’d expected from you.”

Howard chuckled humorlessly. “Jarvis, what the hell am I doing?” 

“Finally having that midlife crisis, sir?” he offered, with compassion in his eyes. 

“You can say that again. You’ve known me for how many years now Jarvis? I’ve never felt so unbalanced about anything in my life. Even with...Steve…” he grimaced just saying the name, no matter how many years had passed. “Even then I felt more in control, like I actually knew what the hell I was doing. This...a baby? I don’t have the slightest idea what I’m doing. My father wasn’t exactly a role model. I feel like I’m going to screw this kid up.”

Howard took a healthy drink from the glance, to hell with appearances. He trusted Jarvis with his life and there wasn’t much that he could do at this point to surprise the man. 

“If I may, sir?” Jarvis began and looked into his eyes meaningfully. Jarvis had always been so polite and proper, even in private and Howard knew he was looking for permission to speak freely, a habit left over from his days with the military. That usually meant that Howard was in for a rude awakening, but he needed the swift kick in the ass so he nodded to Jarvis to continue. “You are going to screw up. A lot. There will probably be days when you are more overwhelmed than you have ever felt and being as they are your child, I am sure that they are going to be precocious and wild.”

“Very reassuring so far, Jay,” he said and contemplated another sip from his glass.

“When you mess up though, when you feel overwhelmed, when you don’t know what to do...that’s when you must remember that you’re not in this alone. As I am here to help you, so will I be for your child. And so will Ana. And Mrs. Stark certainly has no qualms about reminding you what you should be doing,” he finished with a sly smile. 

“If anyone were qualified to have a child it would be you, Jarvis.”

Jarvis smiled softly at him. “We always wanted to but since Ana can’t…” he shrugged and shook his head. It was an old wound that they had spoken of years ago when they had first discovered the truth. Howard didn’t think it was fair that some of the greatest people he’s ever known couldn’t have children but men like himself could. “Looks like I have to keep living vicariously through you, sir.”

“I guess that settles the question on if you’d like to be the godfather then, right?” 

Jarvis’ facial expression changed to one of confusion and then what Howard could only describe as pure joy. He schooled his features a moment later though the smile could barely be contained. “It would be an honor, sir.”

“I was supposed to ask you like a month ago, so if Maria asks…”

“Mum’s the word,” he reassured.

Howard sighed and took another long glance at the unfinished glass of whiskey on his desk. He supposed the first thing that he should do is try to quell that particular habit. Easier said than done for a lifetime drinker but his days of being that man needed to be over so he could set a better example for the child. He stood up from his chair and grabbed his suit jacket and slipped it on, purposefully leaving the drink behind. 

“Come on, we’ve got to go, we’re having a baby,” Howard said and patted Jarvis on the shoulder a couple of times as he walked past him to the door. Jarvis was right behind him as he was in all things though. 

“Let’s just pray it’s a girl. I’m not sure the world can handle two Stark men,” Jarvis remarked, as they left the office

When they made it to the hospital though Howard had a son waiting for him. Seven pounds, four ounces with a head full of dark hair. He had wanted a girl, sure, but there was something deep and primal that rumbled with pride at the idea of a son to raise and to continue the Stark line, even with as terrified as it made him that he would wind up just like his father.

“So, little Almonzo, huh?” Howard asked, as he sat beside Maria on the hospital bed and reached over to run his hand gently through his son’s hair. Exhausted and sweaty as his wife was though, she was still the most beautiful woman that Howard had ever laid eyes on. 

Maria scrunched up her nose at the name and shifted the baby in her arms. “I’m not sure I like that so much anymore now that I can see him.”

Howard sighed in relief. “I’m so happy to hear you say that, because I didn’t want to hurt your feelings but that name is terrible.”

She swatted at his arm playfully. “It’s my grandfather’s name.”

“ _ I know, _ ” he emphasized as if that had been the whole problem. He loved to make her crazy. “What were you thinking then?”

“Well, I have always been fond of Antonio, but in this case I think Anthony might be a little more appropriate given his father,” she referenced his middle name.

That swell of pride was back again and he wondered how he ever could have been worried. At least until Maria unceremoniously dropped the baby into his own arms. 

“I’m tired,” she declared, and didn’t give him an opportunity to protest. 

So, he stood up and paced back and forth with the baby, Anthony, held awkwardly in his arms. Dark eyes soon opened to stare at him, but the boy never fussed, just carefully watched his father’s movements until he was noticed. Howard couldn’t help the soft smile that crossed his lips.

“Hey, kid. I guess you probably know that I’m your father, if you don’t well then you know now. Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I have no idea what I’m doing right now and I am going to fuck up, a lot.” He cringed as he realized what he’d just said. “See what I mean? The first fu--um,  _ mess _ up of what is sure to be many. So, I apologize in advance. Know this one fact though. There is nothing that I wouldn’t do for you. Now or ever. I love you...Tony.”

He brushed a brief kiss to the newborn’s forehead and though he scrunched up at the feel of Howard’s mustache, the baby didn’t protest too much, just yawned and held his father’s gaze, eyes steadily blinking until they finally fell shut, his small hand grasping at Howard’s finger tightly. 

Howard would never forget how nice it felt to have his son fall asleep, safe and content in his father’s arms.

* * *

The memory ended and Howard tapped the side of the glasses to close it out completely, watching the setting before him dissolve back into the blank space of his new lab. He still couldn’t believe that Tony had given him complete free reign over his own space with as much paranoia as they went through at the compound but he suspected it had more to do with feeling guilty about them not being able to leave yet than a leap in trust.

“So, that’s BARF, huh?” Maria’s soft voice echoed in the lab, causing Howard to startle.

He wasn’t sure when she had come in but she had clearly been there long enough, her eyes damp with tears. Maria had been filled in on the details of what BARF was after he had come clean with Tony but hearing about it and seeing it in practice were two completely different things. Especially that of all memories.

“Yeah. That’s it.”

Maria came closer to him, her blue eyes still wandering towards the blank place that the projection had been. 

“You told me you could see old memories but I never thought that it was anything like this,” she sniffed and wiped at her face. “You said you could change things right? You could have made me movie star perfect instead of the sweaty mess I was after delivery you know,” she playfully ribbed.

“Perhaps, but you were already perfect to me how you were,” he responded with sincerity. 

“Very smooth, Howard Stark.”

“It’s the truth,” he said and wiped the tear tracks from her cheeks and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. 

“So, what made you choose this memory?” she asked leaning into his side and wrapping her arm around his waist, an action that he instantly reciprocated. 

“All the last minute birthday planning for Parker, I think. Happy memories are the easiest to project and all the planning and running around...everything going on with Tony and me. I don’t know. I suppose I just wanted to go back to the start.”

“And you’re missing Jarvis,” Maria tacked on knowingly. 

She always had been a perceptive woman.

He smiled half heartedly. “Maybe that too. He always had the perfect advice for me.”

Maria squeezed his hand reassuringly. “He would have been proud of the progress that you two have made. You’re getting there. It’s a never ending process though, you know this? It’s like our marriage, you always have to keep working on it to make sure it continues to grow.”

“I thought it was going to be hard when he was an infant,” he said ruefully. “Little did I know…”

“That, that was the easy part?” Maria laughed. “Though to be fair we missed a lot,” her voice softened. “Our baby is forty-six now, and we missed half of it. I will never forgive Hydra for that, but maybe in a way it was better. This was we can see him get married. Have children. We may not have been here anymore if not for the cryo…”

The topic of their mortality had come up once or twice since they had been brought back from the cryo. Usually, it was spoken of late at night when they both were in bed, all the lights out and the fears that had been kept at bay in the heat of the day spilled over. Howard could see the logic in Maria’s statements and she was right in a way. They were both older than normal when he had been born and more than likely would have passed by now. He hesitated to bring up that if they had been present from the age of twenty-one forward that perhaps Tony and Pepper would have settled down sooner. Maybe Afghanistan and all the pain after wouldn’t have happened. Then again, maybe Iron Man wouldn’t have either. Or maybe Obadiah would have gotten rid of them all at some point. Maybe Howard would have never tried to make things right. 

“What Hydra did will always be wrong,” he began, “but at least we have this second chance.”

They were quiet for several moments, each lost in their own thoughts, Maria still burrowed into her husband’s side for comfort. 

“I came down to tell you that Peter will be here soon but…” she hesitated.

“But?”

“Maybe play that memory of him as a baby one more time? Or maybe the vacation to Hawaii when he was three and we buried you in the sand? I miss those days.”

“So do I.”

Howard checked his watch and figured they still had a little while to go. He put the glasses back on his face and thought of the perfect memory clearly in his mind, then pressed the button to activate the glasses.

* * *

In all of the upheaval of the big move, dealing with Ross and his brand of fuckery and the impromptu birthday party for Peter, Tony had all but forgotten the mysterious gift that T’Challa had sent to him by way of Russian spy. It remained in the back pocket of his jeans in a crumpled heap on the floor next to the laundry basket, only because he knew that drove Pepper crazy and he just loved to push her borderline ocd buttons every now and again. It was only after she casually gave him the cold shoulder in bed that he knew that the jig was up and begrudgingly cleaned up his mess the morning of Peter’s party and rediscovered the device. 

It was a flash drive. A small, insignificant, run of the mill, flash drive. 

He looked over towards the master bathroom where Pepper was showering and took a quick glance at the clock. Peter wouldn’t be here for at least another hour. He had plenty of time to take a peak at whatever this was and still be on time for the party. Just in case he wasn’t though he went ahead and put on his best suit, they’d be taking photos for the fake Stark Internship after all so he knew Pepper would accept nothing less.

The jeans were left forgotten beside the basket once again.

He immediately left the bedroom and made his way through the penthouse and to his elevator so that he could get to his lab. He thought about stopping and grabbing his father to come and see whatever was on the mysterious flash drive with him, like he would have done had Bruce been there with him, but instead he pushed the thought from his mind at least until he knew what he was dealing with. He had no idea what T’Challa could be sending him, though he could guess that it probably wasn’t anything good if it had to be done so secretly. 

The elevator opened up in the lab and he briskly made his way around his second home, pausing only for a few moments to give DUM-E and U some attention. They didn’t like being moved around so much, even if it was back to somewhere familiar like the tower, and so were always jittery and in need of reassurance the first few days following a relocation. So, Tony spoke in reassuring tones, gave pats and rubs and then delegated each of them with several tasks to keep busy while he worked. 

“Friday, open up a secure server line for this. If there’s a virus or anything stuck in this drive I definitely don’t want it going any further into SI or my personal servers,” he said, twirling around one of the office chairs and sitting backwards in it, using the momentum to push forward towards his desk.

“Secure line established, boss,” Friday dutifully responded.

“Thanks darlin.’ Now, lets see what old Bagheera’s got for us.”

He took the small drive and plugged it into the port waiting for anything sinister to happen but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was only one file that was listed on the drive and he highlighted it and dragged it out into his holo display, only to find that it was heavily encrypted. 

“They could have at least made this a challenge,” he mumbled, as he blew past the first levels of encryption, only to then be stopped in his tracks when he was met with a completely different level of encryption than the previous ones. The first few levels had been meant to keep the file safe from unwanted eyes, this one though...this was what Tony Stark considered fun. And here he didn’t think T’Challa had a fun bone in his body, always so quiet and serious whenever they spoke. He smiled, cracked his knuckles and got to work.

The final layer of encryption was advanced, more advanced than he would have expected out of Wakanda, and had he been anyone else there was no way that he would have been able to crack it, but Tony had been breaking through firewalls and encrypted data since he was in elementary, he just had to find the back door…

An image of a young Wakandan woman formed in the holo space, only instead of it being some ultra sleek, high definition photo, the image was digitally altered to resemble old flash technology, and she wagged a finger at him. 

“Ah, ah, ah. You didn’t say the magic word,” she said with a smile.

Tony actually laughed. “So, Wakandans  _ do _ have a sense of humor. Brilliant.”

About ten minutes and a few well placed Jurassic Park references later and he was finally able to open the file. 

The images and the specs that opened up all around him though were nothing like what he had expected. He spun a few images around, enlarging them and looking at the intricacies of the design. He was still confused though, not sure what this meant or why T’Challa would send this to him.

“Friday, patch me up with T’Challa.” He stood up from his chair and looked through all the information that he had been sent, or at least what information was available. Not much was known it seemed. 

“You finally opened it. My sister Shuri was beginning to wonder if she set the encryption too high for you,” T’Challa’s smooth voice echoed throughout the lab. 

“That was your sister’s doing? Tell her it was fun, I especially enjoyed the pop culture references, but it’ll take more of a challenge than that to keep me out.”

“I’m not sure challenging her would be wise but I’ll pass the sentiment along.”

“Okay, enough with the pleasantries. What the hell am I looking at here?”

The lightness in T’Challa’s tone immediately changed to his normal no nonsense. “A few weeks ago our patrols caught a group of mercenaries at our borders trying to break in, probably to seek out vibranium. They all were outfitted with these weapons and they’re nothing like we have ever seen before, but I have a feeling that you have.”

“If you’re making accusations, I’ve been out of the weapons game for almost a decade now…”

“No, no,” T'Challa immediately cut him off. “I do not think you had anything to do with their creation, but I do believe you have fought against something similar.”

Tony looked closer at the weapons displayed before him, having Friday running tests and analysis’ on the energy compositions. The more he looked, the more familiar it became until the pieces all started to connect and click together in his mind.

“These are Chitauri weapons…modified but the energy signatures match…”

What the _ fuck _ were mercenaries doing with Chitauri cores in their weapons?

“There must be some kind of leak with Damage Control. We rounded all of this tech up years ago, but this is the first I am seeing of anything like this,” Tony puzzled, trying to go through anything strange that had come up missing, any disgruntled employees. He had been so busy with the Avengers and SI that he hadn’t really paid much attention to the department he helped found, but Jarvis and Friday now, would have let him know of any kind of discrepancies. 

“Well, that’s the part that is most important. The person creating the weapons is just a middleman. We are not sure who he is. We were able to extract information shall I say from the ones foolish enough to try and attack us.”

“And what did you find out?”

DUM-E rolled up next to where Tony sat in his chair, a signature green smoothie held perfectly in his claw, seemingly on the first attempt if the cleanliness of the kitchenette were anything to go by. 

“I don’t have enough information to prove it yet, but the man making all the orders behind the scenes is none other than Secretary Ross.”

Tony was in such a state of shock and rage that he didn’t even react when in his own shock, DUM-E dropped the smoothie from his claw, the green liquid splashing all down Tony’s shirt and best suit as the glass fell to the floor and shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy belated birthday Anthony Edward Stark, May 29th, 1970. <3 <3 <3
> 
> Also huuuge thanks to Takada Saiko for being my constant cheerleader and letting me vent and rage when the story takes its sweet time coming together. 😂❤❤❤


	23. The Middleman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, happy monday/tuesday!
> 
> We're back to a long chapter today so I hope you enjoy! I do feel like i should warn you that the party scene really didn't go how I wanted it to. I was 1,100 words in and the more I wrote the more stilted it became so I'm sorry for that one in advance. I kinda ended up taking a shortcut on it instead. I love Irondad and writing them but this in between phase of Irondad has just not been very helpful to my muse. 
> 
> Also I just wanted to point out that while I typed this chapter I was wearing Tony's Rabbit/Duck shirt that he wears in the Stark Internship photo XD
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy the chapter, let me know what you think down below. Stay safe and have a great day!

“I don’t have to tell you how bad this is, Tony, mercs and possibly even civilians packing this kind of tech,” Rhodey said, looking over the information that was displayed on the holoscreen, his hand brushing across his jaw as he absorbed the data.

“No shit,” Tony replied, as he removed the soiled button up shirt that he had been wearing. It was beyond any hope of saving now except via his expensive dry cleaner and they worked fast but definitely not fast enough to salvage this. He should probably take a shower, the smell of his doomed smoothie was lingering on his skin but there was no time. He might have to take a couple spritz from his emergency Axe stash before the party started. Rhodey paid him no mind as he continued to undress and redress in the background. 

After the jaw dropping accusation about Secretary Ross’ extracurricular activities, Tony convinced the Wakandan King to send him one of the weapons that they had procured as soon as possible, so that he could look it over and analyze it himself. Wakanda seemed to be very advanced in their technology but if there was one thing that Tony knew better than most, it was weapon designs and productions. Not his favorite trait, but in this case it could prove helpful. In the meantime T’Challa would continue to hold the mercenaries to try and obtain more solid information on how directly involved Ross was in the racket and furthermore, how to prove it.

Tony’s next step had been to bring his favorite military contact in on the situation. And to procure him some new clothes. Not that Rhodey had been much help in that particular department.

“Really, dude?” Tony said, holding out the t-shirt printed with a rabbit that could also look like a duck depending on which way you viewed it. It was very much his brand of humor but decidedly less so Pepper’s. She was not going to be a fan.

“Hey, that’s payback for all of my clothes that you’ve been hoarding for thirty years,” he waved his best friend off still intent on studying the weapon specs. He was in his wheelchair at the moment, holding off on putting the braces on until the party began. Tony had already upgraded them in the last month and Rhodey was certainly building up his strength and stamina each time he used the prosthetic, but he still tired out easily and at a long event like the party, it was best to hold off as long as possible. 

“I don’t hoard,” Tony mumbled to himself and slipped the shirt on over his head. “I just can’t be expected to remember everything that gets loaned to me, it's the lender's responsibility to remind me to see that it gets returned.” This time he spoke pointedly in Rhodey’s direction.

“Yeah, yeah, you big baby. I brought you a jacket at least too. No less semi formal than you usually walk around in.” 

Tony grabbed the jacket and smiled at the sun glasses he found tucked away in the front pocket. Rhodey really was a great friend, sass mouth notwithstanding. “So what do you think? Do you know anyone that could quietly make some inquiries or do I have to go full ghost on this one and dig through government servers on my own?”

“I can put out some feelers. I’m a little limited at the moment, but I can see how far my clearance can take us before you start noodling around their systems.”

“We need to find this middle man,” Tony said as he pulled on the jacket and turned to stand by his friend. 

“That would help, but I think it goes without saying, Tones, that if we want to take Ross down then we have got to do this one by the book. Not only are we bound by the Accords but to get this to stick there can’t be anything amiss, we’re talking about the Secretary of Defense here.”

“You think I don’t know that? I wish Bruce were here. He'd love to help nail this guys ass to the wall."

"Still not able to track that quinjet?" 

"Nope."

"Well, at least the stealth is doing its job then. A little too well."

"Yeah, it sucks being outwitted by myself."

Rhodey sighed. "Well, it'll make a nice welcome home gift if he ever decides to come back. In fact, it may draw him back out regardless."

"We'll see. Pep and I are going to Mumbai in a couple weeks. Maybe I will swing over to Kolkata and see if anyone has heard from him," Tony said, closing the subject of his lost friend. He was still bitter about Bruce taking off after Ultron and leaving him with all the blame, but he could still understand the need to escape from it all. At the time he had wished he could jump a stealth plane too and never return. Now though, he was getting back into a steady upswing, the pieces of his shattered life two years ago finally starting to reform and fall back into place, even with his surprise additions. 

"What are you guys doing down here, working?" 

And there was Pepper. He gave a quick glance to his watch that indicated he was only fifteen minutes passed when he was supposed to be back upstairs, fashionably late and certainly the most on time he had been for an event in recent memory. Still. Pepper never quite saw his perpetual tardiness as charming as he thought it was so he quickly swiped away all of the info on the holoscreen and turned around to face the sound of her approaching heels with a smile on his face. 

"Hey, Pep." He leaned over and offered a quick peck on the lips when she was within range. 

"Oh, no. Don't, 'hey, Pep' me. What are you doing down here? Peter's upstairs--" she cut herself off abruptly as she looked up and down at his ripped jeans (designer made for once) and shirt. "This is the look you're going with?" She stated with obvious disapproval. 

"Yeah, it's uh. What do the kids call this now, honeybear? Hobo chic?"

"You have the hobo part down," she said reaching up and running a hand through his hair. 

"Hey, blame Rhodey he picked it out."

Rhodey snickered in the background.

"Mmhmm. New hair gel?" She asked, skeptically when she pulled back with a smudge of green on her hand. 

"Um. Kale maybe?" 

"Tony, I know you love your bots, but how many times will it take for you to understand that DUM-E is not capable of making a smoothie?"

DUM-E chirped forlornly in the background.

"See now you hurt his feelings. Are you happy now? And I'll have you know he made it perfectly, he just sorta dropped it all over me. Nothing the dry cleaner can't fix though."

He walked over to his desk and reached around the soiled suit for one of his shop towels and ran it over his face and through his hair once more to remove any more traces of the leftover smoothie he had missed. Once finished he turned around and held his hands out for inspection. Pepper seemed less than impressed but given he was already late she just shook her head and motioned for him to go. 

"You good, Rhodey?" Tony asked as they all entered the elevator together.

"Yeah, I'll meet you up there after," he motioned in the general direction of his legs and Tony nodded. 

Once Rhodey exited to his floor and the elevator doors shut once again, Pepper spoke. "Friday, hold the elevator a moment, would you?"

The elevator dutifully stopped and Pepper fixed Tony with a gaze that he knew meant trouble. That worry line was forming at her forehead and he knew he was the exclusive reason why she had a worry line to begin with.

"Kinky, Potts, but maybe we should save the elevator sex for  _ after  _ the child's birthday party."

"What's going on?" She asked, crossing her hands over her chest.

"Nothing." Tony was genuinely confused. "You tell me, you stopped the elevator."

"I saw what you guys were looking at down there. That didn't look like nothing," she implored.

Of course she had seen it. He just didn't think that she would be able to discern any real difference from his normal projects. Though he supposed it was a gun and he did not exactly make those anymore. 

"I really can't talk about it. Not that I don't want to tell you, but...this is big. Like a certain General losing everything big if the information pans out."

She looked him in the eye and held his gaze for a moment. "Be careful."

"Always," he said, and offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile. This was really nothing that she needed to worry about and even though he wanted to say as much he knew she'd just worry anyways. So, instead he drew her into his arms in a hug and kissed the top of her head. Her heels were awfully high today so she had to lean down into it a little, the ghost of a smile playing on her lips, so he kissed her there too for good measure and ran a calming hand up and down her back. 

"The party could always wait a little longer," he teased, his fingers playing with the zipper to her dress.

"Friday, take us up now, please," Pepper deadpanned.

"You're no fun," he laughed as she pulled away to stand beside him. 

"Maybe next time you'll pick up your dirty clothes," she smiled and winked.

Well, shit. He couldn't even be mad at that, he only had himself to blame.

* * *

Peter Parker had lived in New York City his entire life and was used to the grand skyscrapers lining the city. Even more so now that he was Spiderman and was often swinging off of the architectural wonders, but in spite of that he had never been this close to the marvel that was Stark Tower. 

Visiting the compound and seeing where the Avengers had lived and worked had been one of the greatest moments of Peter's young life, but Stark Tower was on a completely different plane of existence as far as he was concerned. Maybe it had something to do with Tony being the first hero he'd ever had, or maybe even just the fact that he remembered when the tower was being built. He and Uncle Ben had watched the process from afar on a few occasions that they’d been in the area, marveling at how fast the work was being completed.

The entire drive over he found himself shamelessly plastered to the tinted glass of the car Happy was transporting him in, eyes wide as he looked up at the massive building. Even once they made their way into the private parking garage he still couldn't tear himself away as they passed a multitude of sports cars and other flashy vehicles from Tony's collection. 

He fired multitudes of questions to Happy as they made their way up the private elevator, the older man offering only non-committal or vague responses regarding the ins and outs of the building. When they finally made it to the top, (and holy crap was climbing ninety-three floors in an elevator so much slower than when he could just swing up), the elevator opened up on a grand floor with floor to ceiling windows and the most spectacular view of the city, that it nearly took his breath away.

That the rest of the wide open room was full of tasteful birthday decor was nearly an afterthought, but then he remembered why he was here, what day this was. He and May had done their birthday breakfast and movie as was tradition until she had to leave for the hospital, and before Mr. Stark messaged him a couple days ago about the party, he fully expected to have spent the day either laying around bored out of his mind, maybe starting in on one of the Lego sets that May had got for him, or just using all the time he could patrolling. Now here he was at Stark Tower. At a party for him. With a group of people that were slowly starting to feel like some kind of weird quasi-family.

Ms. Potts had been speaking to Howard and Maria when he entered, Happy trailing behind him, but she rose and greeted him with a smile and a hug, quick to let him know that he was free to take full advantage of the food set out and to make himself at home while she went to fetch Tony. Before he could take advantage of the food though he found himself being embraced tightly by Mrs. Stark.

“Happy birthday, Peter!” She smiled and squeezed him. Peter had never had grandparents before, his own having died before he was even born, but right now and pretty much any time he had spent at the compound with Mrs. Stark wondered if this is what it was like. Warm hugs and the smell of sweet perfume, a quick kiss on the cheek while he was unprepared, but he didn’t really mind. Howard was right beside him next offering a hand for him to shake, so he grasped and shook it too. 

“Happy birthday, Parker,” he offered.

While it was still completely baffling that he was in Tony Stark’s home, he found it even more so that he was actually standing before Howard Stark, that he had met the man, and worked with him in the lab on many occasions. When had Peter’s life begun to seem so surreal? He guessed with that spider bite, but even then he never knew just how much his life was set to change, and it only became wilder with each new day. 

“Thank you both, I appreciate it.”

“We missed seeing you around the Compound. You were there nearly everyday and then gone the next. Has everything been okay?” Mrs. Stark asked, genuinely seeming like she had missed his presence. 

Truth be told Peter wasn’t sure what happened. One minute he was a permanent fixture and the next Mr. Stark was ignoring his texts and making excuses. He supposed the man was just busy with the Accords and his work, but he had been worried that it really had more to do with that day in the lab when Mr. Stark got so angry with him and Howard for whatever reason. Mr. Stark had apologized for it, but after that their dynamic seemed a little strained. Different. Then Mr. Stark retreated further and he had to go through Happy for everything. It was confusing and he tried not to let his feelings get too hurt, but he really wished that he knew what caused the dramatic change. 

When the text came through about how he was spending his birthday it was like coming up for fresh air. Like maybe this would kick off getting back in some lab time and just working with Mr. Stark in general. He just hoped he didn’t mess anything up again.

“Fine, just busy being back in school and all my extracurriculars,” he replied, an image of Spiderman being drawn to the forefront of his mind. 

“You go to Midtown right? I think you mentioned that before?” Howard asked conversationally.

“Yeah I do.”

“We considered sending Tony when he was younger but he was already so accelerated, Andover turned out to be the better fit. Though I guess his highschool years were a bit earlier than your own, regardless it’s an impressive school to be a part of. I’d expect no less from a mind like your own,” he said and patted Peter on the shoulder. 

“What is this the Spanish Inquisition? Let the kid breathe.” 

As always Tony’s entrance into a room could not go unnoticed as he joined everyone in the living room. Truth be told he didn’t mind the questions from Howard or anyone else, but he let Tony steal him away all the same.

“Sorry, kid I was wrapping up some work, how you been?” he asked, as they made it to one of the food tables and Tony started loading up enough plates of food to serve a small army.

After that it was like Peter had never been cut out of Mr. Stark's little social sphere. They talked about Peter's life mostly, his school, his friends. He even called Ned by his right name on the first try. Then they both ended up going into a rant about the knock off clean energy products that SI's competitor was trying to pass off. By the time Colonel Rhodes joined them it was like any other day that they had spent together at the compound, laughing and talking shop. Mr. Stark was particularly attentive and Peter figured he was probably trying to make up for lost time, or that at least was his impression...what he hoped for? He and Mr. Stark had a bit of an odd relationship, the lines between childhood hero and mentor being blurred further every day.

When it was time for the gifts, Peter found himself walking away with a signed cast photo of all the original Star Wars cast already pre-framed, as well as some exclusive SI merchandise like the new Starkpad and even a logo'd shirt. 

Somehow after that it led to stories being told, mostly about Mr. Stark's mishaps at Peter's age, Colonel Rhodes having all the best ones since he and Mr. Stark were college roommates at the time, each adventure ending in bigger disaster than the last.

_"And that's how Tony won the MIT record for most hot wings consumed in under five minutes and also how he became the projectile vomiting champion as well. He still owes me a new sweatshirt."_

_"And that's how Tony burned off his eyebrows. If you look closely in the old Tenn Bop magazines or whatever the hell he was always featured in you can still see how they had to be drawn on for months!"_

_"And that's how Tony and DUM-E caught our dorm room on fire."_

Tony would always whine and poke at Rhodey every time he started a story but most of the time he would interject certain claims or corrections, things his friend had forgotten, to make sure that his comedy of errors was told properly.

The only person who seemed to be paying more rapt attention than Peter was Howard. The man didn't outwardly express a deep need for knowledge on his son's rebellious teenager days but Peter's senses allowed him to detect the subtle change in Howard's heartbeat and how he shifted closer in their little circle, ears perked up and eyes engaged. Peter hoped that tat meant the father son pair were working their problems out. 

The day ended all too soon and while Happy spent his time loading up one of Tony's cars to take Peter back home, he, Ms. Potts and Mr. Stark stopped off on one of the Stark Industries floors, the conference area he assumed by the set up and he was presented with his "fake" Stark Industries internship certificate. Ms. Potts had to have taken at least thirty pictures but he and Mr. Stark couldn't help teasing and throwing rabbit ears. Call it a sugar rush from the cake and ice cream or maybe just the thrill of where Peter found himself that day but he couldn't remember the last time that he had so much fun. He couldn't wait to be able to tell May all about it.   
  


"Thank you so much for everything, Mr. Stark. This day was amazing."

Mr. Stark got that weird look on his face again like he was suffering from indigestion or something and he shifted uncomfortably in the elevator that stood open to the parking garage.

"Don't mention it, it was the least I could do," he hesitated again but then reached out and Peter thought he was going to hug him but he diverted at the last moment and ruffled a hand through Peter's hair, purposefully messing it up. "I'll talk to you soon, kid."

And in the blink of an eye the elevator doors had closed and Mr. Stark was gone, but the promise of being able to talk to him the next day hung in the air, leaving Peter to go home and dream about Tony calling on him for a mission, or maybe just some lab time now that they were all closer together.

Maybe that was why it had hurt so much more when his texts went unread and unanswered the next day.

And the next day.

And the next day.

And the next day.

He had been a fool to get his hopes up again.

* * *

“Hey, Howard you got a minute?”

Howard looked up from where he was working on a project, surprised to see Tony cleaned up and in a freshly pressed suit at the entrance of his lab. 

“You’re in luck, time is about the only thing I have in abundance these days.” He flashed a quick smile at his son and Tony did briefly as well, but for the most part his face remained set in an almost solemn expression. Whatever he wanted Howard it certainly didn’t seem like it would be any picnic and so he began mentally racking his brain for any strange interactions or ways he could have possibly offended the man since he had seen him last, but nothing glaring came to mind. 

Maybe it was the Peter thing again. They had all had a great time at Peter’s party and laughed and told stories. There was a moment where he had been caught up talking to Peter about the flying car he never had a chance to perfect, an old story he must have shared hundreds of times in the past, and Tony’s eyes had seemed a little far off when he’d looked toward him. He had shaken the look off so quick though and came back with a story of his own when he had attempted to recreate the feat at MIT and it hadn’t quite panned out. Rhodey interjected by panned out, that Tony meant the entire project had exploded in their faces, very literally. 

It was a nice evening, but that was a few weeks ago too. If he was still harbouring an unknown grudge he hadn’t let it show in any other interaction. 

“Hot date?” he indicated Tony’s clothing as they exited the room together, footsteps falling in sync beside each other. As always, when in doubt deflect with humor.

Tony huffed out a short laugh and Howard felt the tension in his shoulders lessen a bit. “I wish. Work, and not the fun inventing kind, the schmoozing sort.”

“Ahhh.” Howard knew all too well about that end of business. They arrived at the elevator and Tony designated for Friday to take them to his lab.

“That’s actually part of why I wanted to talk to you,” Tony said, turning to him, hands jammed in his pockets nervously. “Pepper and I have to go on a little trip for a wedding and to check in on our newest R&D division in India.”

“The trip you’ve been desperately trying to cancel the last few weeks?” Howard said knowingly. From the moment he had been told about the trip, Tony had tried to get out of it at every opportunity but Pepper was just as obstinate that he had to accompany her. Truth be told, Howard thought she just wanted the chance to spend some time away together and he said as much to his son, who kept fighting as much after that.

“You know, ten years ago this would have been a blast, but I’m kinda in the middle of an important project at the moment, which is where I decided you will come in.”

That caught Howard’s ear. He perked up and looked over at Tony as the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened up. This was definitely new. Tony had given him a bit of a free reign with the gift that was his own lab, but he hadn’t ever shown interest in collaborating on anything further than BARF.

“How can I help?” 

Tony stopped short and Howard followed his lead. Indecision was weighing on Tony's face as he looked further into the lab and then back to Howard. 

"What I'm working on is big. It's a step toward being able to get you guys out into the world again, but I've promised Pep my full attention this trip, which is something I was really bad about before…" he said, face briefly flashing with shame. "However, I can't let this drop."

Howard nodded carefully. "I understand. What is it?"

Tony looked into his eyes, seeming to gauge the sincerity before sighing and continuing along. He stopped in front of his main workstation where pieces of what looked like a gun lay spread out. 

"There's some real nasty guys running around with advanced weaponry, made from stolen Chitauri tech. King T'Challa graciously sent these over for me to dissect and see if we can pinpoint an origin while also finding a way to link it back to who we think the financial backer is.”

Howard looked over the tech that was spread out before him with a careful eye, taking inventory of all the different parts and mechanisms. 

“Any leads on the backer?” he asked, as he carefully lifted up a piece to get a closer look. 

Tony let out a deep breath and flopped down into his chair. “Yeah. Secretary Ross.”

Howard’s eyebrows shot up as he turned his attention back to Tony. It made sense though. Secretary Ross seemed like just the scummy type to be dealing under the table and with military funding it was probably fairly easy to disguise any kind of illicit transactions. 

“Can’t say that I’m surprised. What is he after?”

“Vibranium, we think. Outfit your military in Vibranium suits and alien tech and you’re poised to be the most dangerous people around. Maybe don’t even need superheroes anymore except to exploit for further gain through other means, like maybe the super soldier formula,” Tony raised his hands and shrugged as he slouched further into the chair. 

“If I had understood the implications of what that formula would bring...the way it has been fought over and misused…” Howard shook his head ruefully, thinking of Hydra and Red Skull and then later how he had been ripped away from his life for it again. “I’m not sure I would have gone through with it.”

“Sure you would have. Even through all of that bullshit you still created Steve Rogers, your crowning achievement,” Tony teased, but there was bitterness beneath his tone. 

“Maybe so, but I let that one moment dictate the entire direction of my future. You saw how well that turned out.” He wanted to reiterate that Steve had only been what he thought was his greatest creation until 4:34pm on Friday May 29th, 1970, but there were some things he was learning that Tony needed to be shown and not just told, and he was doing his hardest to make that a daily proverb.

"You know, while we’re on the subject, I never actually took the time to ask you before…" Tony started and stopped and Howard turned his attention from the gun to focus on his son. Tony's attention was held on the ground and his arms were crossed tightly across his chest as he searched for the right words to say. 

"How...how did you really feel about weapons being Stark Industries legacy?  _ Your  _ legacy? It never really bothered me, the names, the accusations. Not until Afghanistan and I woke up and realized what I was really contributing to, and it was a safer world. It’s part of the reason Ross still holds a grudge because I took away his toys. Hearing you talk now…I’m just curious what that answer would be." 

Howard took a deep breath and really gave the question some thought, mulling over how to express how he really felt. He had genuinely been happy to hear that SI was no longer involved in weapons manufacturing, though he knew that Tony had been worried over his reaction, but it had been great. Refreshing even. His son and Pepper had really turned the company around into the vision of what he had always hoped that it could be. 

"Weapons were never meant to be all we were. It was wartime though and that was what was expected and demanded of everyone then. Whatever other projects that I had brewing had to go on the backburner for a while, but I had so many ideas,” he spoke, wistfully. “Assisting with Project Rebirth was going to be the start of other things. Good things. If the serum was a success then it meant I’d continue to have the funding for everything else. And then we lost Steve…” he put his head down and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Losing Steve had been devastating. For him. For Peggy. There was a time where he honestly didn’t believe that he could ever do anything good again, even after the war.

“Then I helped on the Manhattan project. Nothing was the same after that. The Stark name was synonymous with death, destruction. I tried to branch out into other ventures but everything failed if not in practice then with the public. Even later on through pressure by the board, Obadiah. The arc reactor was another attempt to go back, after I met your mother. I’d grown accustomed to the protests and noise but I wanted better than that for her. Then that failed too. I couldn’t win,” he held up his hands, outurned in defeat. “So I stuck with what I seemed to be good at which was destroying life, and prayed that my work with Shield might be enough to absolve me from all the destruction I’d wrought."

Howard hadn’t looked at Tony the entire time that he spoke, a little worried to see what he would think of his old man just accepting his place in the world as opposed to fighting and carving out a new station, reinventing himself, like Tony had. He really had tried. Stark medical had been in its infancy when Tony was born and gradually grew, though nothing like the way it had under his son’s reign. Howard had just been so tired by that time that he had stopped trying so hard to be what the public clearly already knew he wasn’t. 

He sat in silence for only a few moments before risking a glance at Tony, his curiosity winning out over all else, but Tony wasn’t looking at him in disdain for giving up, or like he was evil for letting his legacy be that of a war monger. His brow was quirked and he had a slight smirk forming at the corner of his mouth. When he caught Howard’s eye the smirk grew.

“What?” Howard finally asked.

“The arc reactor  _ did  _ work though. I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t,” Tony replied, his hand subconsciously gripping his clothing over where the reactor used to be embedded. He started to respond that it was only through Tony’s own innovation it had been a success, but his son continued, standing up from his chair and moving to stand right beside him. “The element that you discovered…”

“That you synthesized,” he interrupted.

“I would have been dead again if you hadn't put in the work first.” Tony turned his head to the side and pointed to very thin tendrils of lines that no one would notice unless they were looking for it. “Palladium poisoning.”

Howard was horrified. He had never before really considered the implications of the arc reactor and the effects that it would cause to the human body. He had been too swept away in the why’s and how’s. Palladium poisoning would have been an excruciating event to live through and given the scarring still, Tony’s case must have been pretty advanced. 

“I tried every permeation of every known element and nothing would have worked with the arc, until that. So, it wasn’t just me,” Tony said and patted him on the shoulder. “Turns out you have the same capacity for good as everyone else, when you are given the chance.”

That meant the world to Howard given who it was coming from. He could already feel his throat clutch tightly at the high praise.

“All the same, I’m glad I finally was able to ask you. It proves to me that I was right to trust you with this project.” Tony held out his hand to Howard and gave him an easy smile. “And I guess what I really want to say is...Thanks for saving my life, dad.”

The last word was spoken so quietly that Howard thought that for sure he had to have misheard him and Howard found himself frozen to the spot. Tony seemed to sense this and dropped his hand/

“C’mon old man, don’t make this weird,” he sniffed, revealing he wasn’t as entirely unaffected by the moment as he attempted to be and Howard found himself propelling forward and wrapping his son in a hug.

Tony stood there unmoving for a moment like he didn’t know what to do before carefully reciprocating. Howard had hugged Tony before. When he was a small child it had always seemed to come so easy, so natural. The older he grew though, the harder it became. Bear hugs, became side hugs, then a pat on the back, and eventually...nothing at all. God what an idiot he had been. 

“Sorry, to interrupt…” Pepper’s voice rang out regrettably and the two men separated. Pepper offered them a moment to compose themselves before she spoke again. “Sorry, we’ve just got a plane to catch.”

Tony groaned. “Do I really have to?”

“Well, if you're serious about your commitment to R&D then yes we need to take this trip. It’s not just the wedding we’re going for you know? We need to evaluate our newest division.”

Tony sighed dramatically and turned to face his father. “Sorry, you heard the boss lady. Are you guys going to be okay?”

“Tony. We’ll be fine. We’re adults.”

“Look Rhodey is briefed on all of this too and is digging through the military side,” Tony said, suddenly deadly serious. “Let him help you. He’s a pretty smart guy too. Friday has a list of information that I was going through and what I still need. Anything else you need, call me.”

“You have my word.”

Tony studied him for a moment before patting him on the shoulder and backing away. He pointed his finger at Howard. “No toga parties.”

“Are those still a thing?”

“I don’t know. Probably...not. But I don’t need you having them make a comeback.”

“You’d never know if I did, I know how to clean up after parties.”

“Yeah, I did too, but then I would have to come up with new ways to piss you off and who has time for that? Definitely not I.”

“You have plenty of time to talk though,” Pepper said, long suffering as always but there was a gleam in her eye.

“I can think of some ways to shut me up,” Tony helpfully offered.

“No, out. Get out.There’s a lot of information a parent should not be privy to and this is one of those moments.”

The echoes of Tony and Pepper’s laughs lingered the entire way out of the lab.

* * *

An exhausting plane ride and one good night's worth of rest later found Tony and Pepper at the wedding ceremony in Mumbai. The wedding was between one of SI’s lead developers and his childhood sweetheart. Tony could clearly remember the guy's face and even those of some of the other employees of his that were attending, but if it wasn’t for Friday in his earpiece he wouldn’t have a hope of remembering anyone’s names.

“So,” Tony began, leaning towards Pepper and speaking from the side of his mouth as the ceremony got underway, “destination wedding. How do you feel about those?”

“Are you really asking me this right now?” she mumbled out, keeping her eyes on the ceremony and speaking under her breath.

“If I don’t ask while I’m thinking about it you know I’ll forget. It’s not a bad idea though, right? I mean you don’t have to worry so much about paparazzi and the people that you are obligated to invite but you really don’t want to be there are less likely to actually come. It’s like a win, win situation.”

Pepper scoffed. “Or we can only invite who we want to begin with.”

Tony turned to her with a wolfish grin. “Ahhhh so you have thought about it.”

Tony had caught her up and Pepper knew it, a light blush flushing her cheeks.“The thought...has increasingly crossed my mind, but I can’t think about that right now, we’re in the middle of this wedding and you’re being incredibly rude talking through it,” she said swatting at his arm.

Tony turned back in his seat to gaze upon the happy couple, the smug grin stayed. He remained silent for as long as he could, which was probably in the ballpark of twenty seconds before he leaned over once more. “Increasingly crossed your mind huh?”

The blush on her face was well worth any of her fake annoyance of his antics. 

The rest of the ceremony passed without incident. Tony had never been to a traditional Indian wedding and he fell in love with the ambience and pure joy that surrounded every moment. Weddings back home could be so stuffy and formal, but this. This was more his speed.

His eyes found Pepper in the crowded reception area and he never thought that there would be an outfit to rival the backless blue dress, but Pepper’s colorful ensemble was certainly giving it a run for its money as she danced along to the upbeat song being played. Tony gave his phone a final glance and only after he was sure that there were no messages of catastrophe from Rhodey or his father did he grab his and Pepper’s drinks and made his way through the crowd. 

“Your drink miladay,” he said, presenting her with the extra dirty, extra olives vodka martini. 

She smiled as she took it from him and they made their way off to the side of the party. “You’re only about eight years late.”

“Better late than never right?”

“I suppose it’s the thought that counts.”

Tony took a sip of his own drink, his eyes never leaving Pepper’s form. Something beautiful was in the air of the day, a jubilant brought on perhaps from the wedding, but Pepper just looked so out of this world stunning, her smile carefree and relaxed. They had needed this mini vacation. Though they still technically had work to complete, a working vacation was as close as they ever came to escaping their hectic lives and responsibilities for a while. 

Not for the first time that afternoon did he wonder if it was in bad taste to propose on someone else's happy day. A little bit like stealing the happy couple’s thunder but then again no one but the two of them would really have to know. They were secluded enough and he had never been the fall on one knee type. It was clear that they both were ready to kick their relationship up a level, he just had to suck it up and ask. 

“Pep…” he began softly and she turned her attention towards him, bright blue eyes practically sparkling in the setting sunlight. “You’re happy with me right?”

Her brow furrowed at the weight behind his question. “You know I am.”

“Good. That’s very good.” He began to lose his nerve just as quickly as it had come.

“Are  _ you  _ happy with  _ me _ ?” she fired back.

“Yes. Hell yes. This has literally been the few months have had in years.”

“Okay, then what is all this about?”

Tony froze, his heart in his chest. This was it. This was the moment.

“I just...I had to be sure...because there’s something I need to talk to you about--”

Before he could say anything further a loud chime went off in his ear followed by Friday’s voice.

“Boss. I just got a distress notification from Peter’s suit,” she spoke with assurance but Tony could detect the worried undertones.

His eyes grew wide and Pepper’s changed to match his concern as well. 

“Friday, deploy the Mark 47 to Peter’s location and give me real time update of his vitals.” He pulled his sunglasses from his pocket and pressed a button on the side as the information began to transfer to the lenses. He grabbed a hold of Pepper’s arm and they made their way through the crowded outdoor area and to where the valet waited. 

“Everything okay?” she mouthed and Tony shook his head.

“Can you go ahead and grab the car for us? I’ll explain later.”

Pepper looked at him skeptically but went to begin making their excuses and having the valet pull their vehicle up. 

“How we doin’ Fri?” he asked once Pepper was out of earshot.

“Mark 47 deployed and engaged. Thirty seconds.”

Tony quickly reviewed Peter’s information, realizing that he was currently sinking to the bottom of the damn Hudson river. Not on his watch though.

“Friday connect with Mark 47 HUD interface and get the kid out of the water as soon as you can.”

The feed from New York filled his lenses and he thanked his lucky stars he had the foresight to bring these glasses with him as the suit dove beneath the water. He gave off a minute flinch as they went underwater, the barest hint of the hell he went through in Afghanistan still clinging to him after all of these years.

A struggling Peter was rescued from the river, Friday indicating that his vitals were elevated but he was conscious. Tony couldn’t hide the relief that flowed through his body when Peter looked up at him in the Spiderman costume and said hello. 

The relief didn’t last however, as he proceeded to explain everything that led up to his impromptu dip in the Hudson. Weapons. Strange alien weapons being used within city limits and being protected by some kind of bird man. That had to be the secret middleman and Tony’s stomach felt sick that the kid had come so close to being hurt because he had been so focused on pinning everything on Ross. This guy was going to pay.

He felt angry with himself further still, when Peter gratefully thanked him for the save and he had to reveal that he hadn’t actually been there. The flash of hurt on the kids face had been brief but there all the same. 

Tony had to commend Peter for his bravery and willingness to whoever was behind this though, even if there was no way in hell he’d take the chance of Peter going toe to toe with him again. This wasn’t his fight. These were materials that had possibly been stolen from his own Damage Control site and used to harm innocent lives and he wasn’t going to let Peter be one of them. He couldn’t. The kid meant too much. More than Tony was even willing to admit.

He met Pepper around front where the car was waiting and quickly switched gears from work to something more appropriate and non Spiderman oriented.

“You know it’s never too early to think about colleges, I do have some pull with MIT kid, let me know.” 

He had Friday disconnect the call before he said anything else stupid and started the car and began to drive away. The footage from the baby monitor protocol would be automatically uploaded to his private server and now he and Howard would have a little something further to go on in their search. 

“Everything okay?” Pepper prompted.

“Oh yeah, just a school emergency with Peter.”

“A school emergency…”

“Yep.”

“At midnight?”

“Trigonometry knows no time boundaries.”

Pepper clearly didn’t believe him at all. “It sounded a little more serious than that, Tony.”

“Well, you know, Peter is under a lot of stress right now. You heard the course load he told us about at his party. The kid was drowning under the weight of all that and he stays out too late...doing...extracurriculars…”

Real smooth Stark.

“Stays out late for extracurriculars? Why because he’s Spiderman?”

Tony’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles going white at Pepper’s hypothesis. She knew of Queen’s favorite hero of course, how could she not? Videos of him popped up often enough and she knew all about the airport battle and Germany. He didn’t ever expect her to connect the dots so easily though and he wondered if maybe she had seen them working on the suit.

“How the hell did you know that?” he questioned, his voice strained. It really wasn’t a big deal for Pepper to know but it was Peter’s secret to share. 

Pepper gasped. “Well, I didn’t until now! Are you serious? He really is??”

Annnnnd he fell for the oldest trick in the book. It was going to be a long car ride back to the hotel. 


	24. The Date Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is actually still Monday as I post this!!!
> 
> You guys. This chapter. I just want you to know that I had such a fucking blast writing it. Like truly. So much fun. And when i say I had fun, I don't mean that the chapter was fun for the characters but my goodness the mojo was flowing and my muse was alive with the sound of music. AH. 
> 
> So, all I can say is I hope that you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!! As always let me know your thoughts and opinions in the comments down below. You guys are the absolute best readers a gal could ask for. We are less than 50 kudos away from 1,000. I'm just astounded. Thank you from the bottom of me wee little heart. I truly appreciate it. Your reviews keep me going, daily. <3 Stay safe. Enjoy. I love you!

Howard poured himself over Tony’s notes and information on the hybrid alien tech before him. It had been a long time since he had found himself immersed in a work binge of sorts, but he felt like he had been extended yet another olive branch, another chance to prove to his son that he wasn't the piece of shit that he had made himself out to be all those years ago. He had been given a job, a task, and he wasn’t going to be the cause of more disappointment on Tony’s face.

Given what had happened just before Tony left he thought he was making pretty good progress, finally making a dent in Tony’s armor that guarded his heart. He’d actually called him Dad. Aside from the minor life or death slip up at that Siberian bunker, he hadn’t heard that word come out of his son’s mouth since he was at least ten or eleven years old. It had been around that time that any lingering hopes of leaving boarding school to come back home for good had been quashed, and subsequent visitations and school breaks found Howard met with the cool disdain of his own first name. No amount of verbal correction or disapproval served any effect, even coming from Maria or Jarvis, causing the young boy to only double down on his new title. 

He supposed that he had really deserved it. In Tony’s eyes it had been his fault that he was several states away from his family, Howard’s fault that the boy always seemed so lonely. He took the full brunt of the blame knowing it was for the best, only wanting to protect Tony and do what was best for him, but in the beginning it had been hard. It hurt to have the boy that used to cling to him during thunderstorms so casually express his disapproval in his own form of rebellion, but soon enough Howard had pushed passed it, the moniker becoming just one of many minor slights, losing the sharp edge of regret and fading into exhaustion.

He didn’t ever expect to resume his fatherly title all at once, or even ever, if he were honest, but damn it if that simple little word hadn’t dosed him with enough serotonin to skate through the rest of his life on. So simple. So powerful. When he told Maria later that day it had brought tears to her eyes, the confirmation she needed to see that her little family she had always given her all to, finally being slowly stitched back together.

“I think the more that I look at these schematics and see the real life details of these guns, the more sure I am that these are nothing more than a first draft attempt,” Colonel Rhodes spoke from Howard’s right side as he too looked over all the information.

“I agree. It’s all in all a very basic configuration, no actual finesse really involved.”

Rhodes snickered. “Give Tony from ten years ago even five minutes alone with these weapons and he would have picked every bit of them apart and put them back together one hundred times more efficient than they are now. Though I guess it is probably a good thing that they are made by some rookie and not a real innovator.”

This had become another new and recent development in Howard’s life. Tony had suggested that he make use of his best friend’s insight and knowledge, and though Howard much preferred to work alone, he had opened himself up and found Rhodes to be every bit as intelligent and intuitive as Tony had led him to believe. They had been working together off and on now for a couple of days and at first it had been a little unnerving and intimidating even to bring him in on the project. He had met Rhodes briefly a few times in the 80’s and clearly his impression had left much to be desired, so now he felt like it was just as important to make up for that mistake as it was to have a breakthrough with these weapons. 

The younger man wasn’t available around the clock as he spent a great deal of time still going through PT for his condition but he never complained and when he showed up to work he was always very straight and professional, offering a candid no bullshit opinion that Howard had increasingly begun to appreciate the more time he spent with him. And sometimes he was good to gleam little tid bits of knowledge of his son, like the stories that he had shared at Peter’s birthday party, and he valued those little nuggets, storing them away in his mind with every bread crumb offering, trying to piece together the life he had missed.

“Yeah it seems that whoever is producing this crap is clearly more interested in quantity over quality,” he responded, pointing out a misshapen bit of welding on that connected the glowing core to the grip. “They’re getting sloppy, whoever they are. That would indicate that they probably have a deadline or some type of time constraint that they have to meet. Probably a small operation at least, which is a small relief. There’s no factories mass producing this trash.”

“Which is good for us, but if they are skimming corners at all on the work, then not so much for the general public then. I’d really like to know how the hell they are getting their hands on this tech though. Damage control is on the site immediately after any skirmishes and that facility is the most protected building I have ever seen,” Rhodey sighed, all but collapsing onto Tony’s chair.

“They’ve gotta be getting to it before it’s inventoried,” Howard spoke, cautiously watching the younger man out of the corner of his eye as he rubbed at one of his braces wearily. “Y’know I could take a look at those if you want. I’m not Tony, but I’m a fast learner.”

Rhodes shot him a look that may have been hedging on telling Howard to mind his own damn business before his face fell and he slowly began to reconsider. He rubbed at the spot where the braces came together at the knee and offered the slightest nod of his head.

Howard turned back to the gun on the table and swiped away the schematics. “Friday, can you give us an x-ray scan of this bad boy? I’d really like to get an idea how the inside of it works.”

“Of course, Mr. Stark,” the AI assented and Howard cringed at the title of ‘Mr. Stark’ before kneeling down beside Rhodes.

“What do we have here, Colonel?”

Rhodes rolled his own eyes at his title too. “Tony did some adjustments before he left and whatever it was I think he may have made the left side a bit too tight. It’s been pinching.”

“May I?” Howard asked, holding his hands out to touch the braces but waiting until Rhodes gave him the go ahead to be touched first. With permission given Howard gently ran his hands down along the braces, looking for any tightness or feelings of irregularity. 

“You know, Tony has been my best friend for over thirty years now. There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do for that dumbass.”

Howard’s eyes narrowed as he concentrated on his task and also the path that the conversation was veering towards, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. All of their conversations thus far had been courteous and professional but he had a feeling that was all about to change. 

“I know. He is very fortunate to have someone like you to rely on.”

“It should have been you,” Rhodey spoke plainly and Howard didn’t know how to respond to that, but fortunately or unfortunately the man still had plenty to say. “Did you know that Ii was there with him every step of the way for DUM-E’s creation?”

As if he were a puppy hearing his name being called, DUM-E chirped in the background questioningly, his claw opening and closing a couple of times. Rhodes continued unperturbed.

“Literal blood, sweat and tears were poured into bringing DUM-E online. I don’t think I have ever seen Tony happier than in that moment, and then you happened. Or rather didn’t. You blew him off. The one person in the world that he had truly wanted to share in that moment with him and you missed the creation, the demonstration, the award’s ceremony, and you crushed him with the weight of your absences. Whether he admitted it or not, Tony was still a kid and he needed you. And you were never there.” Rhodes' voice was calm and even but there was a lingering fire beneath his words, a severity that Howard knew he deserved.

Howard ducked his head in shame, his neck and face burning with embarrassment. It was all true of course. Rarely did he put in any kind of appearances towards the end of Tony’s education, sometimes pulled away by the company, moreso by Shield and of course Steve as well. Around that time Howard had been working on developing a new type of sonar to try and find Steve’s plane and spent more time than he’d like to admit scouring an empty ocean and later recreating that damn serum again. 

“You’re right,” he responded, because what else could he say in the face of all his sins. He couldn’t lie to this man and pretend to be unaffected. He owed it to him and Tony both to own up to his failings, no matter how painful or uncomfortable.

Rhodes didn’t acknowledge his response, just continued where he left off. “Even now I am sure that you have noticed that not much has changed. Tony is always seeking some kind of approval. I have certainly had my doubts about you and your intentions given the information I knew from before and found out in subsequent years but…”

He let the sentence hang heavy in the air and with it, the weight of his judgement. It felt a little like being led off to execution. Howard’s head was on the chopping block and he was waiting for Rhodes to bring the heavy axe of reality down upon his head. 

“I gotta say that I am impressed with the way you have handled it all. And being true to your word and intent to work things out with Tony.”

The double take that Howard performed must have been comical. He had not been expecting to hear those words from the Colonel at all. He fully expected a continued rant of his failure as a person and a father, and instead he had been offered a tentative absolution from the person that had probably known Tony better than he had even known himself. 

“If you fuck this up again though,” Rhodes continued once more, “I hope that you know that you’ll be answering to me first, among others.”

Howard was quick to respond. “ I gotta say that I really wasn’t anticipating a shovel talk tonight, but I give you my word that I’ll continue to do everything in my power to not fuck this up. I know what mistakes that I made. I’m not stupid enough to let what was right in front of me slip away again.”

Rhodes studied his face, that no nonsense, military bullshit detector working in full force to gauge his words and intent.The only sounds in the room were than of Friday’s external x-ray scanners doing their job. Then after a long moment, a tentative crooked smile replaced Rhodes' look of steel and he nodded. “Yeah, okay. I believe you. You’ve got that same note of desperation that Tones gets when his back is against the wall.”

The comparison, no matter how slight, to his son made Howard beam inside and he felt the tension leave his body. “Glad to hear it. I think I have found your problem as well,” he replied, fingers brushing over a dented pattern in the brace. “Though my hypothesis is that it’s more consistent with the result of a fall than being adjusted too far.”

Rhodes looked away with a tight smile. “I may have pushed myself a little too far.”

“Enough to collapse?”

Rhodes hesitated. “I’m just tired of hurting. Tired of being in this chair. Tired of being too worn out most days to walk from the bedroom to the couch without being winded, even with Tony’s gift.” He turned his eyes away from Howard and stared off to a distant point in the lab, quietly speaking under his breath. “I just want to be normal again.”

Rhodes looked older than his years in that moment, an absolute bone weariness crushing his spirit.

“You’ll get there,” Howard offered, kindly. 

Rhodes face whipped back towards Howard. “Please don’t tell-”

Howard raised his hands up in defense. “Your secret is safe with me.”

Rhodes nodded once, muscles still tense.

“So, that presentation of DUM-E...did that go about as well as I could expect, given what I know of the bot now?” Howard asked, offering an easy change of subject that Rhodes gratefully accepted.

Rhodes chuckled. “If you think he’s bad now…”

Before he could finish the thought an alarm started blaring and the table that the weapon had been sitting on started to shake. Friday’s voice came on over the speaker.

“The Chitauri core has become unstable…”

“Get down!!” Howard shouted before the AI could finish, pulling Rhodes down onto the ground at the moment that the core detonated in a flash of light, powerful enough that it slammed the pair back against the table behind them.

Howard’s ears were ringing as he gently opened his eyes again. Rhodes groaned beside him and a quick glance found that he was unharmed and sitting up.

The damage could have been worse. Much worse. The table where the core had been was damaged and it had managed to break any glass in the lab when the pulse of energy burst out. Aside from more scattered papers and knick knacks though everything else seemed to be intact and Howard breathed a sigh of relief.

“Friday…” he began wearily. “Make a note that the core is very volatile when exposed to even small doses of radiation.”

“Duly noted,” she responded.

The last thing that Howard remembered was the sound of his own laugh before his eyes fell shut.

* * *

“All I’m saying is that you have a responsibility here to tell the truth.”

Tony sighed as he opened up the hotel room door and pressed inside, immediately making a beeline for the softest, most luxurious bed he had ever slept on in his life. Seriously, he was thinking about having the bed shipped home with them when they left Mumbai in a couple days. He sank in against the soft, feathery blanket in its rich golds and reds and tried to pretend like the kid hadn’t just almost been drowned by a flying bird guy and that he hadn’t panicked and immediately spilled the Spiderman beans to Pepper. 

The latter was more difficult to accomplish seeing as how the entire way back to the hotel Pepper had...peppered, for lack of a better term, him with questions that he really didn’t feel like answering, and it all continued in a vicious time loop, always coming back to why he hadn’t told anyone.

“You don’t understand, Pep, this isn’t my secret to tell,” he mumbled into the soft fabric.

“He’s fifteen years old, Tony. There are some secrets that you as the adult get to veto.”

Pepper entered the room behind him and though he couldn’t see her from where his face was still currently smushed into the bed, he could feel the brief twirls of wind stir around him as she walked around the room. He was tired and really didn’t want to talk about this anymore. 

“Snitches get stitches, Pepper.”

Predictably she just scoffed. “This isn’t prison, or the mob Tony. This is a child running around in Stark tech, a child that is officially listed as our intern, and even if we remove the implications of this being someone we know and care about, the liability alone if he were to get hurt…” she stressed.

Tony knew where she was coming from and truth be told it was a lot to take in. Pepper had to think of the situation not only from a personal standpoint but from that as a CEO and he was sorry to have turned their work vacation into simply more work and stress for her. He didn’t mean to make her life harder. He shifted on the mattress, rolling to his side and propping his head up with his hand as he watched her pace the room, a mixture of emotions fighting for dominance across her face.

“Pep. I will readily admit that it wasn’t my finest hour when I recruited Peter, but look, when I met him the kid was swinging around Queens in sweats and goggles. He was already out being Spiderman, stopping vehicles with his bare hands and stopping petty criminals. He was going to continue to do so whether I stepped in or not, he told me as much, and the reasoning behind it all is actually pretty sound for a kid. How could I in good conscience  _ not  _ make sure that the kid was then protected to the best of my ability? That would have been irresponsible.”

Her face perceptibly softened as he once more made his case. She gave up the fight and sat at the edge of the bed and tossed her heels off and rubbed at her foot. “I just hate the idea of having two superheroes to worry about now. One was enough,” she nudged his foot and offered a quick, nervous smile that faded away almost immediately.

Now it made more sense. God how did he get so lucky to end up with such a caring, amazing woman? He had to get her mind off of this topic. They didn’t need to go back through and rehash every close call Tony had been through, like he knew was probably happening in her mind right now. 

“Hey,” he said softly, drawing her attention back to him as he slid the red scarf off from around his neck with one hand and gave her a goofy smile. “Am I alluring enough for you right now, Ms. Potts?”

“Oh my god,” she laughed quietly as he popped open the top buttons of his shirt and spread it open like he was a model. “You’re ridiculous,” she finally responded but the worry had been chased from her eyes.

“Perhaps. It’s working on you though,” he grinned back and pulled at her dress to bring her closer to him. She willingly followed his momentum and met his lips in a soft kiss, one arm leaning on the bed to balance herself and the other resting on the exposed part of his chest, right where the scarring from the arc reactor’s removal was the worst, sending a pleasant chill tingling down his spine.

Of course that was the moment that his phone began to ring in his pocket and he groaned as Pepper began to pull away. “No, no, no. This is our vacation, the phone can wait,” he said, tossing his phone across the room onto an armchair and bringing Pepper back in for another kiss that took her breath away, as the phone continued to ring and then finally stopped as the call was routed to voicemail. 

Only a minute or two passed before the phone started ringing again though, this time Pepper’s cell, and Tony whined as she broke away from him.

“I’m sorry,” she said, breath a little uneven still. “If they’re calling both of us then it’s probably something important.”

Tony just sighed heavily and flopped backward on the bed, facing up towards the rich burgundy canopy. Everything he started today was just getting interrupted despite his best efforts. He listened as Pepper quietly answered the call and then turned back to look at him, that worry and concern wrinkling her forehead again.

“It’s Rhodey,” she said, passing him the phone.

“This had better be good honeybear, because I was about to have the most awesome…” he trailed off as Rhodey’s voice came on the line, calm, professional, what Tony jokingly referred to as his sexy Colonel voice. 

There had been an accident. Howard had been injured. 

The panic attack hit him like a freight train, before he could even realize what was happening or practice any of his techniques that he had learned throughout the years to calm himself.

Rhodey’s voice was gone from his ear and his chest felt tight and painful and damn it he had a heart condition. Why did these people keep doing this to him? He remembered the flash of diving into the Hudson after Peter’s struggling form less than an hour ago, his body flailing about under the water, struggling to survive, to breathe and then it was Tony’s head under the water, a heavy hand pressed into his hair, tugging sharply and making sure he couldn’t come back up. 

“Tony!”

He could even hear Pepper’s voice again as his chest stuttered and gasped a breath of air but the moment changed again. He was back in that Siberian bunker with his half dead suit and the winter soldier was wailing on him with Cap’s shield. His father came to try and save him again only this time his suit hadn’t been ready in time and the soldier held his father by the neck, choking the life from him before using his metal arm and hitting him in the face brutally, repeatedly. He had just got him back but his father was gone.

“Tony. Tony I’m here. I’m okay,” a new voice cut through his subconscious, but that didn’t make sense because that voice was dead. He watched him die. The soldier? No. A car. He saw the car hit the tree and his parents were both gone. It didn’t make sense.

Slowly, awareness began to make its way back to him as his father’s voice continued to speak about anything and everything that came to his mind. A video projection of Howard was displayed on the large television, a thick strip of gauze in place above his right eye. Tony’s eyes widened at the thought of his father seeing him as he was, sweaty and disoriented and weak.

“One way video only,” Pepper’s voice whispered in his ear and it was only then that he realized that she was sitting behind him, her hands gently holding onto his biceps with his back pressed against her chest, breathing in deeply in tandem with him to try and steady his heart rate out. 

Not for the first time and certainly not for the last, did he thank his lucky stars for Pepper Potts. 

Tony wiped his sweaty palm against his pants and brought it up to cover Pepper’s hand in thanks, the ghost of a tremor still causing his hand to shake as he came down.

“We just can’t catch a break, can we?” he spoke quietly so that only she could hear and she just squeezed her arms around him tighter in response. 

“Let me get you a glass of water,” she said, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple and stood up to go get it. 

He instantly missed the security and warmth of her arms around him, but he would be okay. The blood had stopped pounding in his ears and his heart rate was returning to normal, but he felt drained and exhausted like he always did after an attack. 

_How fucking embarrassing_ , he thought to have an attack practically in front of his father.

“Howard,” he spoke, voice still thick and rough.

Tony had never seen such relief cross his father’s face at the sound of his voice. “Tony,” he spoke softly. “How are you doing?”

“What happened?” Tony questioned, disregarding his father’s concern.

“It was the Chitauri core. I had Friday x-ray everything and I guess the low level radiation armed it like a bomb. We’re okay though. Got a bump on the head when it knocked us back, seven stitches. I’m fine though really. It’s a good thing the radiation count was so low or else that explosion could have been worse,” the older man rambled.

“Howard…” he cut his father off again and waited for his voice to quiet. He knew that he couldn’t see him, but Tony could see Howard and that was all that mattered, his eyes trained on his father’s own. “I’m really glad that you’re okay.”

* * *

Despite Pepper’s assurances that she would completely understand Tony’s need to go back to New York, he insisted that he had made a commitment to the company and he was going to stick the rest of the trip out. 

There were no further incidents from Howard or Peter or anyone in between for which he was grateful. When Peter went into the water at the wedding he had been just on this thin side of keeping his anxiety in check, letting his authority as an Avenger take the driver’s seat to find out what had happened, but in the safety and privacy of his hotel room with Pepper, hearing that his father had been hurt had been just the little kick his mind had needed to fall off the cliff into the waves of his panic attack. 

It was tiring and ugly. He hadn’t even noticed that he’d had tears leaking from his eyes until Pepper wiped them away. That woman was a saint though and catered to him after the adrenaline drop, bringing him water and some fruit to help with the crash. They did nothing for the rest of the evening but lay in bed and talk and steal snatches of tv movies that they didn’t understand the words to.

They completed their visit to the India Distribution Center of Stark Industries and Tony was able to let go and talk shop with the small R&D group there while Pepper did the real work. It was nice. Normal even and the next two days breezed by. No explosions, or almost drownings or catastrophes of any kind happening in that relaxing time frame. 

They flew back into New York City in the early hours of Sunday September 18th, coincidentally his Mother’s birthday. He hadn’t remembered until Pepper had mentioned it but thankfully she already had him covered and they spent the previous day gift shopping, settling on a thin diamond and ruby bangle, a traditionally embroidered scarf running the gamut of bright vibrant colors and a small bottle of her favorite perfume, just in case Howard forgot too. 

The gifts were all wrapped up and waiting for his mother but the first thing Tony did was to head to the lab and assess the damages. Rhodey had already taken care of all the broken glass and the reinforced panels of the main lab had actually held up. Just minor things needed to be replaced or put back where they belonged. 

He’d already been on the phone with T’Challa sharing the news of the weapons volatility and he in turn let Tony know that they were prosecuting the mercenaries finally. There was nothing more that they knew about Ross or the operation as a whole, purposefully left in the dark aside from hearsay and that was not going to cut it in this case. It was all up to the identity of this middleman and what they could find out from him. 

“Friday, pull up footage from the lab accident,” he said quietly. 

Friday was another one that he had spoken to privately. She was a young AI and still learning. It still amazed him to think that he had created intelligence with the capacity to feel guilt over something that had happened, but the guilt was there in the shake of her voice, guilt for not knowing how the core would react, for not having anticipated it. So, he told her it wasn’t her fault, just like he would when DUM-E would drop a smoothie glass over his new suit, or when U would forget his size and turn around sweeping everything off of his desk with the motion, or even like when Jarvis in his infancy would mix up sarcasm with serious patterns of speech, resulting in the AI trying to accomplish an interesting litany of Tony’s commands. Friday was his baby like any other and he wouldn’t let her bare that burden. 

“Of course, Boss.”

The screen before him lit up with Friday’s footage but he didn’t bother with the sound, feeling a little amused to see his father and best friend getting along. 

A slight trill came from behind him and DUM-E pulled at his sleeve. He smiled at the bot and rubbed and patted him, reliving that thankfulness when he’d been informed later that his bots were both also safe following the accident. U, always a little more shy than his brother, beeped from a few feet away and Tony motioned for U to join them. All hesitation lost the bot joined DUM-E in chattering in code and looking Tony over to make sure he was okay, like they had always done whenever he was gone for an extended time. 

Overgrown dogs. That’s what they were when it boiled down to it. 

Then the explosion played out over the screen. Tony watched unbelievably as his father pulled Rhodey down to his level but the blast still was powerful enough to throw them backwards and he saw the moment his father hit his head against the sharp corner of his desk.

“It could have been a lot worse, couldn’t it?”

Christ he really needed to make sure there was an alert anytime anyone came around him and he was too zoned out to notice. It was definitely not the person that he had been expecting to join him in the lab though. 

His mother, immaculate and beautiful as ever, even dressed down in jeans  _ (designer but jeans!)  _ and a v-neck thin navy blue sweater with tiny white polka dots. It still felt strange, out of place even to have her here in the present, no longer the memory in his mind, contained to another world entirely. The bots immediately came to her side beeping and clacking until she gave them each a firm pat and rub.

“Yeah. Howard was lucky, again.”

“Seems to be a pattern with you boys,” she said, fondly, her mouth turning up into a smile. “I remember all the phone calls from Andover stressing your safety, but the ultimate destruction of everything else within radius. And I absolutely remember the eyebrow incident,” she referred to Rhodey’s party story. 

Having not had the slightest clue in the world about how to draw on his own eyebrows now that they had been singed away, and with Peggy out of the country he had begrudgingly been forced to explain the whole story and dutifully take notes on the dos and don’ts of make up application and the best brands to use. His mother had found it all hilarious and it only became even more so when she shared with Ana and then he couldn’t go a single care package without makeup included. Luckily, it was the 80’s so no one had really thought anything of the eyebrows. And if he later became a little more adept with makeup and became liberal with his use in eyeliner well, that was just a happy byproduct. Pepper still would add some to his face before a press conference if she really wanted to make him look particularly sorry or innocent. The public couldn’t resist.

“It’s a talent, what can I say? Happy birthday by the way, you’re not supposed to be up and about yet or else I would have bombarded you with gifts,” he said, moving away from his bots and wrapping his mother in a long hug that she returned. 

She felt safe. Like home. 

“Thanks, I sure don’t feel my eighty-nine years,” she laughed.

Biologically her age was correct but if they were going by what would have been her next birthday before the accident, she was sixty-four, but she had never looked her age at all and certainly never acted like it. 

“I think Cap has you beat. And so does Dad for that matter,” Tony added to make her feel better. 

Maria’s blue eyes twinkled at him as she turned her head to look him over. “You called him Dad,” she spoke with wonder.

Tony’s face scrunched together when he realized his error and he cleared his throat and backed a step or two away. “Yeah, I guess I did. Maybe don’t get used to it though?”

“That’s honestly the best birthday present that I could get. To know that you guys are truly making progress. Howard says so little, most days I'm not sure where you both stand."

Tony sighed and scratched the back of his head. "We're getting there. I guess I can take your other presents back then?"

"Don't you dare," she responded immediately, nudging his shoulder and he laughed. 

"So, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit to? Not that I don't enjoy seeing your face, it's just not often you make your way down here," he said, swiping away the screen with its video and instead fixing the fallen pictures and knick knacks for his desk. 

The glass from the frames would need to be replaced but it didn’t really bother Tony. He smiled at the newest photo on his desk. It was a selfie that Pepper had taken of them last month at the compound. He was still barely awake having not yet had his cup of coffee for the morning but Pepper was there smiling brilliantly. He couldn’t remember why she was so excited but then it hadn’t really mattered. Just seeing her face lit up like that did things for his heart. And body. It was a  _ nice _ morning. 

“Your father is going to talk to you about something today and I wanted to make sure that it didn’t turn into a fight by asking you first instead.”

Tony’s eyes diverted from the photo, pleasant memories fading as he took into account his mother’s serious face. “That’s not ominous or anything.”

“I want to go out for my birthday this evening. Like a normal person. Not a secret.”

His mother always was one for ripping the bandaid right off.

“Ma...I’m not sure that’s the best idea right now…” his mind going to thoughts of Ross or worse them encountering one of these goons with an alien gun, or hell even Hydra again.

“I know that you’re scared…”

“Scared? Pfft. Not me,” he lied.

“But darling…” she said coming around and grabbing a hold of his hands, preventing him from moving or shuffling anything else about. “We’re not prisoners either. I love you. I love what you have done for us and it’s not like I am asking to move away. I just want to go out for the evening with my husband. On my birthday,” she emphasized. “I want to feel normal again. I know you’re worried but the day is fast approaching where you won’t be able to hide us anymore no matter what.”

She moved her hands from his own to caress his cheeks as he tried to look away from her, to not see the emotions in her eyes, to see her plead like a prisoner to a jailer. 

“One day...you’re going to have to let us go,” she spoke with finality, the last nail in the coffin around Tony’s heart.

It wasn’t an unreasonable request. It really wasn’t. And if anyone deserved a night on the town it was his mother whom had endured all that Hydra had to throw at her when she should have been on vacation in the Bahamas with his father. She had been patient. So patient. But his mother was a social creature. She thrived in an open environment and she made do with what she’d been given at the compound and now here at the tower but it wasn’t enough. She was right. He needed to let her go. 

“It’s hard,” he admitted. Even when he had left to go with Pepper to India it had been hard for him to leave his parents behind. Even under the watchful eye of Rhodey and Friday. He was constantly terrified that he would wake up or come home and this all would have been a dream, his parents gone once more.

“I know it is. I do. I feel the same way. Every day I wake up expecting to be in that awful bunker, cold and with a gun in my face. I worry that I will never see you again, every single night. I have already missed so much…” she trailed off, her voice cracking.

Tony could feel his throat tightening as he tried to swallow the lump that had formed there. He wasn’t going to cry damn it. 

“What if you get hurt? Or someone tries to kill you both again?”

And fuck, there were the tears, a lone bead making its way down his cheek. It was too early to be this emotionally compromised and he was too fucking jet lagged.

“Anthony, anything could happen to us tomorrow. A heart attack, a seizure, a fall. You could be-- in your suit--” she broke off wiping at her own face. “Or even a lab accident,” Maria alluded to his father. “You can’t control the universe and you can’t hold anyone else back with your fear. Let us go.”

Fear had always been one of his greatest enemies. Fear was what woke him up screaming every night for months after New York. Fear was what led him to create Ultron. Fear was what cost him Pepper for a time. He couldn’t let his fear cost him anyone or anything else. 

He brought his hands up to his mother’s face and kissed her forehead gently before wrapping around her in a tight hug, meant to bestow all of the safety and protection that he could muster. 

“I want you to take Happy with you and let me make the arrangements. Pepper and I have plenty of haunts that owe us a favor, that way you’re not cooling your heels on the sidewalk waiting for a table.”

Maria smiled against her son’s chest, breathing in deeply and letting loose a relaxed breath as she listened to the strong and steady thump of his heart beneath her ear. 

“Will there be a curfew as well, Anthony?” she teased, but she was proud of her boy and so very happy. If she had let Howard try this she’s not sure how well it would have gone over.

“9pm,” he responded right away and Maria laughed and held him closer to her for just a while longer.

* * *

Maria managed to drag Tony up from the lab after that under the pretense of breakfast and yeah he normally skipped that ‘most important meal’ of the day but after all the feelings that his mother had wrung out of him he was feeling a little more pliant than usual. They made a whole to do about it and Pepper would even be joining them after her shower as well. Her solution to jet lag was much like Tony’s and that was to stay up and push through it until it was time for the correct bedtime, or close to it. 

Howard was already sitting at the breakfast bar with a cup of coffee and a newspaper. His father and Steve Rogers were the only people he knew that still had a paper copy delivered anymore. His father looked fine though. The giant white bandage had been removed but the stitches didn’t stick out too much on his face. 

He climbed up to the seat beside his father who offered him a curious glance despite the heads up from his wife about their breakfast company. 

“You should have gone into business with Mom,” was all Tony said as his mother placed a cup of coffee in front of him. 

“I have no desire to take over the world, but I’ll keep it in mind,” he said looking his son over. His skin was brown and tanned and though he looked tired around the edges he also seemed happier, more content than he had before. No traces or cracks in the armor were left of the hyperventilating man that he had spoken to on the phone several days before. “How was Mumbai? Anything interesting happen?”

“Aside from you blowing yourself up?” Tony quirked.

Howard rustled his pages and finally closed them. “That goes without saying.”

“I have PTSD. One of my invisible scars,” Tony just blurted out like a damn child. He didn’t know why it was so important for him to get it out but that day he had hung up the phone pretty quickly and without explanation of his behavior and he didn’t want his father to just ask about it later. His mother watched them from the kitchen island too and he knew that Howard had told her what had happened.

Howard coughed and shrugged a shoulder, taking a sip from his mug. “Welcome to the club. One more member and we get t-shirts.”

The tension in the room fell off at that and Tony chuckled, thankful that this wasn’t going to turn into an ordeal. He had never thought about his father having ptsd before but it would make sense. It was a disease that took many forms and whatever he thought about his father personally, the man had genuinely been through a lot, seen a lot of awful things. Lived with the weight of the Manhattan project at the corner of his mind everyday. Each new day that Tony shared with his father, the more he realized how much alike they really were.

“I think your father meant to ask, should we be expecting any new jewelry to be adorning your lovely Pepper,” Maria quickly volleyed before they could stray off the topic of Mumbai too far.

He already knew what she was asking and hoping for and he could see it in the nonchalant way his father tried to appear as well, sipping from his coffee mug, and really he wished that he had a better answer. 

“Not of the ring variety,” he followed their equally vague form of questioning. “I, uh, was interrupted actually.”

That made him think about Peter. Now that he was home he should really check in with the kid in person to make sure he was doing alright. Sure Friday had been continuously monitoring his vitals for the duration of the trip, but after nearly drowning chasing down a bad guy that Tony hadn’t taken care of yet, he owed it to Peter to put in an appearance, especially with how hot and cold he had been running as well. He would be much more relieved when Ross was out of the picture. Maybe tonight he’d see him.

“It will happen when it is meant to happen,” Maria said wisely, mixing the ingredients together for crepes. It wasn’t an Italian breakfast but it was his mother’s favorite indulgence. 

“What will happen?” Pepper asked, right on time, her hair still a little damp around the edges from her shower and comfortably adorned in Tony’s Bruce Lee t-shirt and a pair of sweats. Her Sunday clothes she called them. 

“Yankees getting back into the series,” Howard quickly recovered, lifting up the sports section showing that the Boston Red Sox had edged out a win against the Yankees 6-5, the Yankees prospect at a Wild Card spot in the playoffs dwindling considerably. “This is all your fault, kid,” Howard said, thwapping Tony on the back of his head with the newspaper.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tony laughed and kissed Pepper on the cheek as she cozies up beside him. 

His father continued ranting about baseball, while his mother just shook her head and hummed an old Italian song that she always favored when she cooked. With Pepper pressed up beside him he couldn’t remember the last time he had felt so happy, so at home. Things were finally looking up. 

* * *

His mother adored her gifts later on that day. The bangle she immediately wore and she fawned over the scarf for the rest of the day. The perfume was already a given success and Howard hadn’t even needed their back up gift having discovered the simple pleasures of online shopping. 

He fitted the heart shaped pendant around her neck with a smile as Pepper aww’d over the moment, but Tony felt shy and uncomfortable at the full brunt of his parents' love for each other. The kiss definitely went on longer than he was okay with and he figured it had to have been payback for the mornings when one of them would stumble across him and Pepper in the kitchen, back pressed against the wall or fridge or wherever they happened to be standing beside at the time. 

Tony called in one of his favors that evening to get his parents in at one of his and Pepper’s favorite restaurants. It was small, private, romantically lit, and best of all it was nearly impossible for any kind of paparazzi to be lingering around or taking any unwanted photos. Happy was still assigned to their care and would join them inside though. Tony wasn’t taking any chances and his mother was quick to agree. 

Pepper helped his mother pick out an outfit that matched both of her new accessories, a beautiful burgundy a-line dress with a high waist and lace panel. Howard was not going to know what to do with himself she promised even as Tony gagged in the background.

“I’m going to stop by and see Pete while they go, will you be okay here?” he whispered, as they stood in his parents living room, Howard sitting on the couch in his new three piece suit, as they waited for his mother to come out. 

Pepper yawned deeply. “Yeah, I am definitely crashing. Tell him hello for me too, will you?” she asked leaning back against him. 

He played with her hair, scooping it to hang around one side of her neck. “You know I will.” He pressed a gentle kiss to her temple and breathed in her calming scent.

True to her word, when Maria emerged Howard was gobsmacked. Much like Tony had been at the sight of a certain backless number. 

His mother looked like a damn queen. 

“May I escort you?” Tony asked, dramatically bowing and then offering his arm. 

“You both may,” she smiled diplomatically, an arm in each of her boy’s arms as they boarded the elevator and descended towards the parking garage.

“All teasing aside,” Tony said as they exited, “you look stunning. Please just be careful. Stick with Happy. Don’t do anything stupid,” he addressed the latter to his father.

Howard just rolled his eyes and shooed Happy away from the car door to open it for his wife himself. 

“Have fun, but not too much fun. You know what I mean? Like don’t be me from 1995 please,” he joked. He couldn’t remember half of 1995. That was someone who had way too much fun.

“I’ll have her home before we turn into pumpkins,” Howard assured and joined his wife in the backseat of the vehicle. 

Happy caught Tony’s eye and nodded, he knew his job and he was better at it than anyone Tony had ever met and he trusted him deeply. They were in good hands. The best. He just had to keep reminding himself of that as he hopped into the front seat of his own vehicle and made his way out of the parking garage. 

* * *

“Anything new yet?” Jasper asked, from where he leaned back in his seat, tossing a stress ball in the air.

“Not since they got back from the airport,” his partner, Horton, responded. 

Secretary Ross had had them on Stark and Stark Tower from the moment that they made their move back to the big city. He was convinced that Iron Man was in contact with the vigilante from Queens and even more certain that they both were conspiring against him, holding some enormous secret over him. Jasper was less certain of that but it wasn’t his job to question orders, only to follow them, even if they were paying exorbitant meter fees.

“Hey, hey, wait a minute we have movement from the private garage, two vehicles actually.”

“Is one of them Potts?” Jasper asked, sitting at attention and poking his head towards the window. 

“Negative. She drives a blue Audi. Looks like we have a red Audi and a grey BMW. Which should we follow?” Horton asked, starting their vehicle. 

Of course the vehicles had turned out of the one way together as they pulled their vehicle out onto the street, but the red Audi had maneuvered into the right hand lane to turn while the BMW was continuing straight.

“Were you able to get a look at if the bodyguard was driving one?”

“Negative, windows are tinted.”

“Shit,” he mumbled, shaking his head. The light was still red but it would be turning any minute. Both license plates bore the Stark moniker, but the red one was definitely more Stark’s style. He made a snap judgement. “Stick with the Audi. I don’t know anyone else in this city that matches their superhero suit to their vehicle.”

The light turned green and they turned right, following two cars behind the red Audi.

* * *

The drive to Queens didn’t take as long as it normally did, the traffic gods for whatever reason smiling down on Tony this evening, even offering up a space to park in only a building down from Peter’s. 

He sighed and thumped his head back against the headrest, wondering what exactly he was going to say to the kid. 

I’m sorry I have been ignoring you and then parading you out for a birthday party like a shiny new toy before shutting you away again? I’m sorry I wasn’t actually there to save you when you almost drowned?

He had to be the worst mentor and the worst superhero on earth. Steve Rogers wouldn’t have messed up this much. 

He had to roll his eyes at that line of thinking. Steve was just as fallible as everyone else, he had to constantly remind himself, bringing up that glaring flaw from his refusal for oversight that led to this mess with Ross to begin with. But he couldn’t think about that bullshit right now. 

Just wing it, he finally decided. He was good at bullshit. 

Popping open his door he had to shut it back again quickly as a dark SUV passed by him a little too closely. “Fucking idiot,” he mumbled under his breath. He would never get over the horrendous drivers the city had to offer. 

* * *

“Do we have eyes on Stark?” General Ross’ voice spoke over the speakerphone as Horton lined the SUV up into position. 

“Not yet sir,” Jasper replied, focusing the long range lens camera. 

“Document his every movement as much as you can. If he speaks to anyone I want to know about it. If he so much as breathes funny in a certain direction I need it documented and reported!”

“Yes, sir,” they both responded dutifully, though Jasper couldn’t help but roll his eyes. 

The door on the vehicle opened up and he took a quick burst of pictures. 

“Oh yeah, looks like we’ve got him,” Horton smiled. 

They both watched the dark headed man shut the front door of the vehicle and walk around to the sidewalk, looking around nervously.

“Shit, does he see us?” Horton whispered lowly.

“Nah, that bastard is just paranoid after all these years. Can’t say I blame him.” 

* * *

Tony sighed as he looked around the quiet street, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck perking up. It felt like he was being watched. An unnerving sensation that cut through him deeply, despite not seeing anything particularly out of the ordinary. 

_ Caution, _ his mind told him and he could have kicked himself for not bringing Friday and his pair of sunglasses with him.

He moved to the sidewalk and opened the door to the backseat, taking out the carefully wrapped gifts for May and Peter that Pepper had procured while they were gone. 

* * *

“Wait he’s coming around now and opening the back door…”

“What the fuck…” Jasper murmured under his breath, pushing down on the camera to continue his burst shots. The shots that he took were instantly uploaded to a surveillance database in real time for Secretary Ross to look over. 

“Don’t stop taking your pictures,” Ross urged over the line.

* * *

Three hundred miles away Ross was sitting at his desk smoking a fat cigar, the smoke whirling around the screen of his computer as the facial recognition database pinged on the match he thought he needed.

His lips curled up into a twisted grin.

“Well, I’ll be a son of a bitch. You guys have actually come through for me tonight. I’m impressed.”

He muted the call and stared at the flashing read name on the screen. “I’ve got you by the balls now Stark.”

Ross leaned back in his chair, throwing back the glass of whiskey as he went, his laugh echoing all around him.

* * *

“Shit, I almost forgot,” Tony mumbled, and popped the front door of Peter’s complex back open and extended his hand with his car keys in them out and double tabbed the little button to lock the doors and set the alarm.

He didn’t think anyone was stupid enough to break into a vehicle with his name on the plate but stupid never followed any logic.

The lights and horn flickered twice in acknowledgement on the grey BMW as Tony slid back in between the doors to get to Peter’s home.

* * *

In Washington DC the red light of a flickering name continued to flash before Ross’ eyes. This was it. He finally had the prick. He won the game and Stark had no idea. 

The name read...

_Howard Anthony Walter Stark - Status:_ **DECEASED**

Ross leaned forward and clicked the edit function. 

_Howard Anthony Walter Stark - Status:_ **ALIVE.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof. That's not good...was anyone actually fooled that it'd end any way but this though? lol
> 
> Also it figures AO3 is having notification problems when I post my fav chapter. 🙄 to make sure you always know when a new chapter is posted, follow me on tumblr. I'm on mobile so I can't link but...
> 
> I post chapter updates to my personal tumblr: theherothechampiontheinquisitor 
> 
> And there is also a blog that is specifically just for this story at: 12-16-91-Stark.


	25. The Second Chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey. So, sorry for not posting the last couple of weeks. The end of June is always the busiest for my family. The 14th is my nieces birthday, the 18th was my 9th wedding anniversary, the 19th my dad's birthday, then we had father's day and then my daughter turned 8 on the 24th and we had her party that weekend. So, we have been non stop busy. 
> 
> However, I present to you an almost 9k apology for the wait. <3 
> 
> I love you guys, thanks for sticking with me and leave me a comment down below to tell me what you think! We're closing in to the end now!

The restaurant was every bit as nice and discreet as Tony had promised. The owner personally was waiting to escort Howard and Maria to a private dining area that had been rented out just above the actual dining room. If the man had shown any kind of recognition as to who his guests were, aside from friends of Tony Stark, he didn’t show it. 

Happy remained with them as he had promised their son and though it was a little unnerving at first to have him shadowing their every move and analyzing every member of the waitstaff for ulterior motives, it was at least nice to know that he was every bit as dedicated to his job as he implied. 

The waiter provided them with the house’s best french wine as they perused the menu and finally settled on oysters to start and then lamb for Maria and a prime filet for Howard. As the waiter walked away, Maria offered Howard a wide smile as she took in their surroundings with glee. They were the only two in the private dining area and it should have felt weird but years of being in their station made it feel comfortable. Intimate. 

“This place isn’t too bad right? I think Anthony did a pretty good job.”

Her grin was contagious and Howard couldn’t help but smile back. “I would have been happy going to a chain restaurant at this point, just so long as we could get out a little bit.”

Maria nodded as she sipped at her wine. “The Tower is beautiful, but I have missed this.”

“Me too. It won’t be like this always,” he reassured her. “After tonight I’m sure we’ll have some more wiggle room when we have proven that the world hasn’t ended.”

“I can’t blame him for his caution. He’s only trying to protect us. We both know something about that, don’t we?”

Howard took a long drink from his wise glass as he mulled his wife’s words over. “We do,” he spoke quietly.

“Have you told him about that yet?” she asked him from over the rim of her wine glass. 

“No.”

“Why not? You have both been making significant progress, in fact just this morning I heard him call you Dad for the first time in...I can’t even remember how long. That might just be the final push that you need to bring you together.”

Howard snorted. “Or to further bring us apart.”

“I don’t understand why it would do that...”

“He blames me already for what happened, for the distance between us, as he should. The why doesn’t matter. Not really. All the hurt has still been done and the reasoning won’t change that.”

Howard could tell by the way that his wife pursed her lips that she wanted to disagree with him and that was fine. She had always disagreed with this particular but of their shared history, even if she had understood it and supported him anyways. The way he saw the situation though was as he just described it. There was no sense in telling Tony about any underlying reasons for their distance. It was what it was and there was no taking it back, and he didn’t need any weak excuses trying to absolve him. More than that, he didn’t want this talk to derail Maria’s evening. This was her day and he wanted it to be special. 

“Let's not spend our only night out talking about the past or Tony. This is your night, my dear, and I'd rather spend it becoming reacquainted with you,” he spoke, his voice melting into the deeper velvety tones that he knew his wife was unable to resist. Even now he could see the grin pulling at the corner of her mouth. 

“Don’t think I’m shelving this conversation forever…” she began and Howard lifted his hands up in surrender.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Her smile finally crept across her face freely and satisfied. “Please continue reacquainting yourself then, Mr. Stark.”

“My pleasure, Mrs. Stark,” he smiled, all thoughts of the past finally pushed away. 

* * *

Peter hadn’t been home.

Of course he hadn’t. He’s a teenager with friends and school and other outside interests that didn't involve Tony, like Academic Decathlon. According to May, he was currently in Washington D.C. for a national tournament tomorrow, which now that May had mentioned it, did sound familiar, something Happy had mentioned in passing earlier that day, but Tony still felt a little pang of disappointment. That felt like something that he should have known but between the distancing and everything going on with these weapon dealers, his focus had been scattered, the entire reason he was here to make amends after Peter’s near drowning and here they were at cross purposes again. 

Tony would just have to continue in his resolve to do better and make sure to have the foresight to text the kid a little message to wish him luck at the tournament. Also to make sure he texted Peter before coming out for any other visits as well so that Aunt May would stop looking at him like he was out to seduce her or something with his gifts. She had at least loved the scarf that they brought back as a souvenir and he made sure to point out that it was Pepper specifically who had picked it out and not himself.

He sighed as he exited the building and unlocked his car, flopping down into the driver’s seat. He had erred on the side of discretion with the low key BMW so as to not draw too much attention to Peter’s home and get people to ask more questions than necessary about why Tony Stark would be visiting an apartment in Queens in the middle of the night. Especially if Ross or his goons were monitoring him. 

_ Speaking of...  _

Tony pulled out his phone to check his messages, his paranoia about his parents being out in the open returning now that he no longer had a task to focus on. He had received two texts from Happy. The first was a status update after they were successfully inside the restaurant and seated, and the second was a blurry picture with Happy’s thumb in the corner, but from what Tony could make out it was his parents laughing and drinking wine at their table. His anxiety lessened slightly but he still sent Happy back a return text to remain vigilant and stay safe. Not that he really needed to remind Happy to do that, but still he felt twinges of guilt whenever he thought of the Mandarin attack and just how close he had come to losing one of his best friends.

“Boss I have finished analyzing the footage from the Baby Monitor Protocol of Peter’s incident with the men selling Chitauri weapons,” Friday’s voice filled the car from his phone. 

“Oh yeah? What have we got Fri?” Tony asked as he closed out Happy’s messages, thankful for another distraction, and Friday projected several images.

“I was able to cross reference Peter’s footage with other hits across the city and was able to identify the men as Jackson Brice and Herman Schultz,” Friday supplied.

“So, these are our dealers, huh?” he asked, spinning the photos around and taking in the innocuous appearances. They certainly looked the sleazy type to be pushing weapons, and he sadly knew that from way too much personal experience. However, they definitely weren’t the highest rung on the ladder.

“So, it would appear.”

“No way these guys are the brains though. What do we know about them? Any priors?”

“Just on Brice. Domestic violence and second degree assault.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Tony said, flipping through the information that Friday pulled up on the screen. “What about family, friends, job history? Anything sticking out to you?”

“Both are listed as employees of _Bestman Salvage_.”

“Salvage?” It could mean nothing, but Tony was an active believer that there was no such thing as coincidences, at least not in this line of work. “See what you can find out about this salvage business and keep a high priority alert on these bozos. See if you can figure out where they are now and what their next moves are. Might be time to get my FBI guy involved.”

He hadn’t been kidding when he knew he had to take this whole weapon and Ross thing by the book. There was only so much Tony as Iron Man could do, but now that they had the smallest thread to find out who was producing the weapons they could set up a deal and catch them in the act. Another small step in the greater scheme. 

Tony smiled to himself as he finally started the car and began the drive home. He was proud of Peter. If it wasn’t for him then who knows how long it would have taken to track these guys down. He did still stand firm behind his decision to take over from there, it was clear how dangerous these men were, especially with the backing of birdman, and he knew that kid was disappointed to be sidelined but he was taking it like a champ by focusing on school and his extra curriculars.

Tony hated to say it but the near drowning had really shaken him more than he liked to think. Not only did he know a thing or two about what it was like to be drowning, he also felt responsible for Peter, so when he got hurt then that was on Tony. It was his job as the pseudo-mentor to protect Peter and better prepare him for the challenges to come and instead of doing that he pulled further away. 

Just a little bit longer though. He just needed a little more time to get Ross out of everyone’s hair and then everything would be fine. He could stop worrying about Peter and his parents safety soon. 

He hoped.

* * *

Horton impatiently sat tapping at the arm of the car door. It's not that he hadn’t been involved in a stakeout before but they had already been sitting here for two hours (and really who spent that much time eating dinner?), and he couldn’t understand the point. Their target had been Stark and he was nowhere to be found, this stakeout was pointless. He didn’t know if Ross perhaps expected Stark to join the older pair, maybe a business dinner or the like but the atmosphere of the restaurant didn’t seem like the place that you would go to for that. 

“What’s the play here?” he finally asked his friend. There had to be some kind of missing link here and he hated to not be on the in. 

Jasper lazily regarded him. “Your guess is as good as mine. The Secretary said to stay on them so that’s what we do. You have a problem with that?”

“I just wish I knew why we were staking out the geriatric society is all. Who are these people?”

His partner just shrugged. “Not my business and it’s not yours either, just keep your camera focused.”

Horton groaned but turned back just in time for the couple in question to come spilling out the doors laughing, the bodyguard a few steps ahead of them signalling for the valet. They definitely seemed looser, the older man had lost his jacket and his tie was askew, probably spent the evening drinking if the red on their faces indicated anything. Fucking rich types. 

Dutifully he snapped pictures of the couple including several clean shots of their faces as he had done before, though they hadn’t stopped moving and laughing since they left the building making them harder to pin down. When they kissed Horton paused only for a moment before taking a few snapshots of that too. Maybe Ross was a perv or a swinger or something. He had said document  _ everything _ .

The bodyguard loaded them both into the waiting car before getting behind the wheel of the car, none the wiser of what they had done tonight or when they followed behind him back to Stark Tower. 

* * *

Ross couldn’t believe his good fortune. He ran analysis after analysis and short of getting a literal DNA test, he was positive that Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths had been greatly exaggerated, and they were still counted among the living. More than that, Tony definitely didn’t want anyone to find out about it either. 

Finally he had the leverage that he would need to hold over the man and find out who Spiderman was, maybe try and skim out some info on Banner too. He still hadn’t forgiven that man for costing him his relationship with his daughter Betty and he was going to see to it that he paid as well. Any enhanced person that had not signed the accords or signed a clause for what was essentially retirement, was therefore in violation of them and subject to discipline on the RAFT. 

Still he was getting ahead of himself. There was still more work to do before he could confront Stark with what he knew, starting with finding out where the elder Starks had come from, and he had a pretty good guess as he pulled up all the information that he had on the Siberian bunker they’d captured Helmut Zemo in.

* * *

“Tony, you’re not really waiting up for your parents are you?” Pepper’s sleepy voice called out into the living room, her bare feet padding softly across the floor and towards the sunken in living space.

Tony froze up, undeniably caught in the act but he couldn’t help it. It was after midnight and his anxiety hadn’t lessened as well as he had hoped it would. “No of course not,” he tried, knowing that she would see through his lies easily, “that would be weird.”

As expected, Pepper’s bullshit detector immediately caught on as she came down the single step to flop onto the couch beside him. “Honey, there is no one in this world weirder than you...case and point,” she said, pointing to the messages on his phone.

He shrugged his shoulder innocently. “It’s just security updates.”

“With photos?”

“One can never be too cautious and you know our head of security is very thorough.”

Pepper had to concede the point there. “Leave them be. This is the first time that they have been out in like twenty years. Let them have their fun.”

Easier said than done when you have anxiety, he thought, but he knew that Pepper knew that too so he kept his mouth shut as she snuggled in against his side, resting a hand over his bouncing knee soothingly. He took a deep breath and relaxed into the touch.

“How was Peter?” she deftly changed the subject. 

“Oh yeah that,” he said, like Peter hadn’t been on his mind all evening too. He glanced quickly at the dot on the Spiderman suit that indicated that he was in his Hotel room in Washington, probably asleep. “He’s actually in DC for Academic Decathlon and I didn’t even know it, so that trip was a bust. I think May Parker is starting to think I’m a creep.” 

“You do keep catching her all alone. Should I be worried?” Pepper teased and he laughed.

Maybe Pre-Afghanistan he would have been all over Aunt Hottie. She was beautiful and Italian and had a wonderfully kind personality that his former self would have immediately and consensually taken advantage of and thrown away in the morning. Now though he was a changed man. He’d been through the gauntlet and came out the other side better for it, or at least he hoped he was. 

And Pepper...she was on an entirely different plane of existence. He wanted to marry this woman and have her by his side forever. He had never felt like that about anyone else before. So, he smiled and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, rubbing his hand up and down her arm reassuringly.

“No one could even come close to holding a candle to you.”

Pepper tucked her head but Tony could see the blush spreading across her cheeks. Absolutely adorable.

“Well, at least he’s doing something productive and not out trying to be a hero,” she continued.

“I take offense to that, you know.”

“You would.”

“What are you doing anyways?” he questioned and tickled her side, making her jump back away from his side and he noticed for the first time how worn down she seemed. “You doin’ alright? You look a little pale.”

“Just what every girl loves to hear.”

“You know what I mean.” Tony brought a hand up to cup her cheek and she closed her eyes and leaned in to the touch. It was a touch he had done a million times but his heart still fluttered in his chest.

“I’m fine,” she sighed, “just still jet lagged and then I already know the board is going to be a pain in the ass this week. I have three separate meetings scheduled for tomorrow morning alone. I swear they’re like a bunch of children.”

That Tony could definitely understand and sympathize with. Reason number one hundred and forty as to why he had never been happier to hand over the reigns of SI. He still had to deal with the board occasionally but that time had been cut in half, at least.

“Well, look at the bright side, at least the commute isn't bad.”

The bad joke pulled the smile from Pepper’s lips that he knew it would. 

“Always a silver lining.”

“Sometimes.” 

The conversation lulled into a comfortable silence for a few moments before Pepper seemed to remember where she was and opened her eyes and stood from the couch and stretched.

“Alright your time and attention is better spent elsewhere than hyperfixating on your family.”

“Hm? Like what?”

“Come to bed with me and find out.”

God he loved when she bossed him around, but he wouldn’t let her win that easily. She had been on the verge of falling back asleep in his palm.

“I thought you were tired?”

“I can sleep if you prefer.”

“I just can’t believe you think I am this easy,” he said standing up and wrapping his arms around her waist. “I mean really, you haven’t brought me flowers or anything.”

She rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

Barefooted, Pepper was just the slightest bit shorter than Tony was so he took immediate advantage of having the high ground for once and tilted his head to bring his lips against hers in a soft kiss. She responded to his advances immediately, returning the affection with vigor and okay maybe she wasn’t as tired as she appeared because her hands were in his hair and she was moving against him and they really needed to take this elsewhere.

Reluctantly he pulled away from her, her lips slightly swollen and the pupils of her eyes dilated with arousal and he knew he looked the same. Looking at Pepper now though...this was his favorite sight. One that he knew he would never get tired of. This beautiful woman, wanting him, loving him. 

“Pep…” he spoke softly, a million thoughts running through his mind. Images of Pepper in a white dress walking down the aisle towards him, his mother and father watching on proudly from the sidelines. Making her his wife with a kiss like they just shared. He wanted all of that with her and that knowledge only grew more concrete with each passing day. It should have been scary but it wasn’t anymore.

“What?” She asked with a bright smile, her hand playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.

He could ask her right now. He knew in his heart that she would say yes. Tony wouldn’t though, as much as he wanted too. Pepper deserved better than a hasty proposal espoused before they crawled into bed. He had to do this right. 

“I just love you is all,” he finally responded and her eyes softened. 

“I love you too,” she said tilting her head up and capturing him in another kiss before whispering against his ear. “Let me show you how much.”

How could he say no to that? 

* * *

Peace was a fragile concept, especially as a superhero. It was an all too familiar truth that Tony should have expected to be broken sooner rather than later. Alas he suspected nothing when he woke up the following morning… scratch that, definitely afternoon, when he finally made it out of bed. 

Adding to the list of Pepper Potts’ super human abilities, Tony had absolutely no idea how she had managed to wake up on time that morning for her first of several meetings, but he vaguely remembered her beautiful, perfect face kissing him goodbye that morning as if she had slept nine hours and not three. Tony could easily do that sometimes but not this morning. 

By the time he finally made his way down to the lab half an hour later with coffee in hand he felt a little less zombie like. That didn’t mean he was ready for the outside world yet, so when he was met with the sight of Rhodey and his father moving his lab working on the chitauri weapon again and he froze in place.

Rhodey turned towards him and did a double take of his appearance with a grin and whistled as Tony shuffled by. “I like what you’re doing with your hair today.” He reached out and ruffled his hand through his hair, making it stick up more than it already was. 

“Long night?” his father asked from where he was seated in Tony’s favorite chair, reading through some information Friday was projecting. 

“I could ask you the same thing, you missed curfew.” He flopped down into his own chair and started downing the remains of his coffee. He didn’t have enough in his system to deal with people yet.

Howard gave him an incredulous glance, his eyes skimming over Tony’s bedhead and more rumpled than usual attire. “Which one of us looks it though?”

“Hey,” he began between sips of lifeblood, “I can’t help it if Pepper is trying to kill me.”

“No excuse. You don’t see me barely crawling through the door after the night your mother…”

Tony immediately cut him off with a retching sound. “Please don’t say shit like that to me so early in the morning.”

“Tones, it’s almost one o’clock,” Rhodey helpfully supplied, clearly amused at the situation.

“Okay, don’t say shit like that to me ever. I don’t need to know about your night.”

“You seemed intent on keeping an eye on all the other details…” Howard continued, with a shrug, a bright smile that Tony could rarely remember ever seeing on his face as he was happy to continue to let his son squirm. 

“That’s my mother. That’s just...wrong. So wrong.”

Rhodey leaned forward and poked painfully at a bruise that was poking out over the collar of his shirt and was that a hickey? Yeah it was. Shit. 

“Like you can really talk, Mr. Boombastic,” he said, poking at it one more time before Tony batted his hand away. “Anyways, I think you’re both gross.”

Tony couldn’t help but smile at his friend, feeling relaxed and at peace, this playful teasing setting a familiar and comforting pace, no matter how sometimes gut churning the topic. The idea of his mom and dad a floor away doing  _ that  _ \-- Oh god he had to stop. 

“Don’t worry honeybear,” he said and patted the man's shoulder. “One day when you get older you too can have adult relations.”

“Don’t talk about my relations please.”

“What? I’m offering to be your wingman. What happened to that one blonde pilot you were sweet on in the 90s? Or you know what?” he said snapping his fingers. “Hill is single I think. Unless she and Fury have some kind of weird Beauty and the Eye-Patch thing going on.”

Howard’s head shot up. “Nick Fury?”

It took a minute for it to click in Tony’s mind that his father and Nick Fury did know each other back in the day, flashes of Fury showing up to his Malibu home with crates of his Dad’s old work, questioning what Tony really thought he knew of the man.

“Oh yeah, I forgot you knew him. He was director of Shield for a while. Maybe kinda still is. They’re still restructuring post-Hydra infestation but I’ve told you about that, remember?”

What a talk that had been. Tony had never seen Howard so quietly angry before. 

“Yeah, you have unfortunately. I just didn’t realize Nick was still around. He’s a good man.”

“Bit of a hardass.”

“Part of the job,” Howard lamented. 

“What are you guys doing down here anyways?” Tony questioned, not liking the turn in the conversation. He definitely didn’t want to dwell too hard on Shield’s downfall. 

“You invited us.” Rhodey said with a long suffering look. 

“I did?”

“You wanted to work with us on the weapon tracing, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Well, I can do you one better on that actually. Friday, fill them in on our new friends.” 

Friday gave them the same information that she had come up with on the two thugs that Peter encountered.

“I already have my guy with the FBI on it, for the sake of proper channels and all. I think they’re going to try and make contact with them soon and if we get these guys we can probably get the big boss too. I’d bet my stocks on it that it all comes back to this salvage business. This Toomes guy is squeaky clean though, not even a parking ticket, so we’ll have to wait for it all to play out.”

“It’s definitely a start. Nice going.”

“We have our arachnid friend to thank for that,” Tony said for Rhodey’s ears only and the older man nodded his approval.

“Well, let’s see if we can give them anything else to work with, connect it back to Toomes or this salvage operation.”

“Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?” Howard asked, pulling Tony aside.

“Uhhh. Sure, Howard.”

“In all seriousness, I just wanted to say thank you for the night out. The restaurant was nice, quiet, and romantic. Better than anything I would have chosen and I know your mother appreciated it, too.” 

Tony just shrugged his shoulders and ducked his head at the unsolicited praise. He never knew exactly what to do in situations like this where the other person’s opinion actually mattered to him so he turned his mind to work, pulling up specs for a new Iron Man suit. This particular incantation was specifically using nanotech similar to T’Challa’s suit. He had started the project weeks ago but had been severely neglecting it with everything else on his plate between the Avenger’s and Rhodey’s legs and SI. It felt good to be making something for himself again. 

“No big deal,” he finally stuttered out, keeping his hands and mind busy on the specs before him. 

“You should give yourself more credit. And if it means anything at all,” Howard said quietly, leaning in a little closer and looking Tony in the eye. “I think you’ll do well whenever you actually decide to ask your girl to marry you.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to do with his father’s kindness today, but if this was the effect of letting him have a night on the town then maybe he should let them get out a little more. 

“Thanks...it does actually.”

“How’s that going by the way?” Howard asked hopefully. 

God when had this shift in their relationship occur when it was his father giving him the hopeful expressions, looking for any kind of bread crumb to sustain their relationship like Tony had done for years growing up

“About that…” Tony trailed. He had been formulating a plan since last night, letting the ideas come and go, especially the more excessive ideas that he knew Pepper would hate, and so far he had come up with a pretty solid foundation. “I’m going to ask her on friday.”

“Asking who, what?” Rhodey asked, rolling his seat to bump into Tony’s.

“I’m going to marry Pepper.” A statement of fact. Not a dream anymore, or at least it wouldn’t be after this week.

“Tones, I’ve known that since she first started the job and wouldn’t put up with your bullshit and you actually let her put you in your place.” 

“No, I know that, but I mean I am going to actually ask her. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into it and I tried to do the whole spontaneous thing,” he glanced toward Howard in recognition of his advice, “and that hasn’t worked out too well, we keep getting interrupted, so I’m going with Plan B.”

“Never has Plan B ever been a good thing when it comes to your ideas.”

“No Plans A-C are always solid, it’s after that that they get a little shaky.”

“And which plan were we on Spring Break 86’ when you got that tattoo on your a--”

“SO ANYWAYS,” he cut the conversation off immediately and Rhodey had to hide his laughter behind his hand. Howard was amused looking and not the least bit surprised as Tony continued on. “I’m thinking of doing the whole romantic route, but not overdoing it? A little more subtle, more Pepper’s taste. A new dress and shoes, Pepper’s favorite seafood restaurant on the river, and then ending the night with a simple little question. No big deal right?”

Rhodey conceded with a nod of his head, palm still on his chin. “That’s surprisingly thought out.”

“And best of all, no rabbits,” Tony said holding his arms out.

“No rabbits,” Rhodey chuckled and then became serious, looking over at his friend and taking in his demeanor. “You’re for real though?”

“As real as it gets. This will be like my fourth attempt, so fourth time's a charm right?” he asked, turning back to his work for a moment and then whipping back around. “Oh and platypus, don’t act like you don’t have the same matching tattoo on the opposite cheek,” he winked.

“Boss we have a situation,” Friday interrupted before Rhodey had the chance to voice his denials.

“Show me.”

Without another word Friday brought up news reports on their screens about a developing story at the Washington Monument and a flicker of panic grasped his heart when he realized that Peter was in Washington today.

_ “...some sort of an explosion on one of the central elevators leading to the top of the monument. We are not sure at this time whether it was some sort of a terrorist attack or an equipment malfunction but we were informed that there are people trapped on that elevator now, including a small class of students visiting from New York. The fire department is trying to reach them now and…wait it looks like there is someone or something on the side of the building...perhaps one of the Avengers, Jerry try and get a close up of that…” _

“Tones is that…?” Rhodey trailed off, standing beside Tony in front of the screen.

“Yep. Shit.” Tony answered, his jaw clenching.

Howard observed the pair with a careful eye as the camera zoomed in on a red and blue figure climbing the Washington Monument with his bare hands. “Colleague of yours?”

“Something like that,” Tony answered distractedly. “Fri, connect me to his suit…”

“Whoa, wait, wait, wait Tones, he looks like he has it under control right now. Give him a minute,” Rhodey said, placing a comforting hand on Tony’s shoulder. “Let him do this on his own.”

Tony grit his teeth and stuffed his fists in his pockets, feeling anxiety already washing over him. Rhodey he knew was right. Peter looked like he had a grasp of what he was doing as he began to swing against the monument in an attempt to gain access inside. Not what Tony’s first suggestion would have been, but the kid had committed. 

All the while Howard kept shooting glances from the screen to his son and Rhodes. There was a thread that he was missing here, and with every grimace they let play across their faces, the more he began to suspect that this wasn’t just some colleague. This was someone they cared about. But who?

The scene continued to play out and Spiderman was finally able to make it inside of the building and there were several tense moments of waiting around until the news finally broke that the people trapped in the elevator had in fact been saved by Spiderman.

Tony finally was able to let loose a sigh of relief as the positive reports continued to pour in. “Fri is he okay?”

“Vitals are all within healthy ranges.”

“I told you,” Rhodey nudged him.

“Yeah, yeah. If he gives me a heart attack before I can marry Pepper, I am really going to be upset.” He finally unclenched his fists and wiped his sweaty palms against his jeans, turning towards Howard to catch just the smallest of strange looks before he turned away. “Look I’m taking ten, gotta walk this off a bit.”

Rhodey immediately understood and patted Tony’s back as he passed him.

The reporter from earlier continued to drone on in the background and Howard returned his attention from his son's retreating form and back to the screen trying to figure out what had him so shaken up.

_ “...lucky that Spiderman must have been taking a vacation to our beautiful nation’s capital. Normally, the vigilante can be caught swinging around the boroughs of New York City…”  _

They repeated the footage of the Spiderguy on loop and then interviewed a few of the students who had been saved from the elevator...students Howard realized had been from from Midtown Tech...Peter’s school...what the fuck.

* * *

What a fucking day.

Tony collapsed against the old battered leather sofa in his private area of the lab, his legs hanging over the side of the couch as he covered his eyes with his arms. He could feel a headache coming on and he was really hoping to stave it off to get some more actual work done when he came down all the way from this adrenaline spike.

His phone buzzed twice in his pocket and his hands shot for his pocket in case it was Peter, but it wasn’t of course, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that little disappointment. It was however, Pepper, and she was always a soothing balm for his emotions.

_ I just saw the news, is Peter okay? _

Of course. He forgot that Pepper was in on that little secret now, so he responded immediately. 

_ Better than I’d wager. He’s a hero. _

There was a little bit longer of a wait between messages though he could see the ellipses that indicated that she was typing. At this rate he expected back a novel but instead was met with a simple question.

_ Are you okay? _

He smiled in response. She knew him better than he would like to admit sometimes.

_ I think I finally understand what I keep putting you through. _

This time the response was immediate.

_ You were doing that to me long before you stepped into an Iron Man suit. _

He guessed in a way he had. She had always been the one to clean up his messes and make sure that he was taken care of even on his darkest of days. She should really think about applying for sainthood. 

_ Let me make it up to you,  _ he responded instead.

_ Didn’t you do that last night? ;) _

Tony snorted.  _ Let me make it up to you properly. Dinner on the riverfront, friday evening? _

The ellipses appeared again for a long time and he wondered if she was just checking her schedule. He didn’t think that she had anything conflicting but she did say that the board had been particularly exasperating this week. 

_ I have a late appointment… _

His brow knit together as he took her comment into consideration. He had a standing table at the restaurant so he wasn’t worried about losing out on that, but he had really hoped to get the ambiance right with a little background sunset, but he guessed in the grand scheme it really didn’t matter that much. The view was to die for no matter what time it was. 

_ I can wait. _

_ Okay, you’re on Casanova. <3 _

He smiled and put the phone down on his chest, a sense of peace washing over him. Finally his plan to ask Pepper to marry him was finally in motion. 

He had a good feeling about this one.

With that in mind he went ahead and shot a text out to Peter as well. He knew the kid wouldn’t get it right away but he had to let him know that he was proud of him.

_ Good work in DC today. You’ve done well, kid. I’m proud of you. Lab time this weekend? _

Hopefully, by this weekend not only would he be engaged but he could give Peter some good news about Brice, Schultz and their ilk. None of which would have been possible without Peter’s contributions and he had to make sure to let him know that. Howard had never been the best at support and he wanted to start breaking that cycle of shame, just like his father was trying to relearn with him. Maybe they could all learn together.

* * *

The rest of the week seemed to fly by after that. 

He continued to work in the lab with his father and Rhodey though the former hadn’t stopped giving him weird looks anytime they were in a room together. It was like Howard wanted to say something but was continually holding himself back. Tony didn’t know what that meant, whether it was good or bad but he was sure that he would find out eventually. Until then he’d just keep working on his suit and hoped it played out for the better.

Midway through the week Tony did hear back from his FBI contact. Tony had known the guy for years, he was essentially the FBI equivalent of Phil Coulson (man did he miss that guy). They had reached out to Schultz to set up a meeting, but they hadn’t been able to determine the whereabouts of his accomplice, Jackson Brice, since the meeting Spiderman had busted up. They were waiting on a date and time and wanted him on standby in case things went south since they weren’t sure what kind of tech they could be up against. 

He agreed and then immediately began upgrading Friday's sentry mode because he just had a feeling that the world was working to conspire against his plans with Pepper again and he’d be damned if another proposal was interrupted. Friday would be able to handle any problems aside from a cataclysmic disaster, which he didn’t particularly worry about at this point.

Maybe he should have though.

Tony felt a little vindicated in his preparations when he received a text Friday morning indicating the deal was on and bigger than they had anticipated.

_ Meeting today. Staten Island Ferry at 6pm. _

Still nothing from Peter though and Tony couldn’t entirely shake off the cold shoulder he has been getting lately. He’d have to give the kid a call tomorrow when he knew he wouldn’t be busy with school. 

What a start to the weekend though.

“Are you ready for tonight?” he asked, his arms circling Pepper’s waist as she put her makeup on. 

She smiled back at him in the mirror. “I’m definitely intrigued to see what you have planned given your track record.”

“Ouch. I can be romantic when I want to be.”

“Yeah, but who usually made sure all of those plans were in place?” she asked, delicately applying her mascara.

“Only because you’re a control freak. Admit it.”

“Or you’re irresponsible and probably wouldn’t know how to place a reservation to save your life.”

“That’s what I have Friday for. Just admit that you’re a control freak Pep.”

She turned in his arms. “Fine. I am a control freak, but you’re still a disaster too.”

“All the more reason to love me,” he said, his thumbs massaging circles into her hip. 

A brief smile flickered on her face before she leaned forward to give him a soft kiss. “I do love you.” She gave him another kiss and then booped his nose and pushed out of his hold. “But I’m late and I only live twenty floors away from my work so I will see you later.”

She pulled her jacket on and buttoned it up, stealing a couple more kisses before taking off for the elevator. “I’ll meet you up here when my appointment is over!” Pepper called as the doors shut.

* * *

“What do you think, Mom? Not bad, huh?” Tony asked his mother, showing off the ring that he had picked out for Pepper years ago. 

“It’s beautiful. You definitely have exquisite taste in jewelry,” she replied, turning the ring around in her palm. 

Howard of course had spilled the beans to Maria about his son’s plans for the evening and Tony figured that was probably the reason for all the constipated looks while they worked in the lab together. This meant that Maria had to take it upon herself to inspect Tony and make sure that everything was absolutely perfect for the evening. 

She had already approved of the Chanel dress and matching pumps, both the same color blue as that vexing dress Pepper had worn to the fireman’s benefit. He hadn’t been able to get that dress out of his mind since she wore it and that fixation had only amplified after he had used that memory with BARF a couple months ago. Tony had Pepper’s assistant deliver both packages to her office over lunch and he couldn’t wait to see what she looked like.

“You have no idea how long I have carried that thing around,” Happy chimed in from where he leaned against the bar watching the exchange, pretending to be Very Nonchalant, but Tony could see through the ruse. Happy was a gooey marshmallow on the inside when it came to matters of love and given that he had been around Tony and Pepper more than even Rhodey and seen how their relationship grew and developed, he was probably more invested than anyone but Tony himself. 

“Too long, I know,” Tony said, flicking his wrist up to catch the time on his Rolex. 

5:56pm.

“Shouldn’t you be getting the car for us, Hap?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said, finishing his ice water and pushing away to head for the elevators.

Tony felt a gnawing pain of nervousness begin to churn his stomach, his nerves finally starting to get to him, the closer the time came. “Hey Hap?”

“Yeah, Boss?” he turned to Tony.

Tony plucked the ring from his mother’s hand and came to stand in front of his friend. “Maybe you can hang onto it for just a little while longer for me?”

“I’d be happy to,” he said with a proud grin and carefully handled the ring, putting it back into the same pocket that he had safely kept it the last eight and a half years. Happy then leaned forward and pulled Tony into a rare bear hug, offering several firm pats to the back. “See you downstairs,” he pulled away and Tony thought he might have seen a tear at the corner of his eye. The big sap.

When he was gone, only Tony and his parents remained and his mother instantly settled back into motherhenning him, straightening the tie that matched Pepper’s dress. 

“You're going to do great tonight,” she said as she fiddled with the tie and then his pocket square for good measure. “More than that I am so grateful to be able to be a part of such a big moment for you.” Here she finally dropped all pretense and brought a hand up to rest on his cheek, the shine from her own wedding band sparkling in the light. “I am so very proud of the man that you have become, Anthony, and you couldn’t do better than Pepper in a million lifetimes. She’s your match in every way.”

Tony could feel the heat from his blush spreading up his neck and across his cheeks as he ducked his head. “Mom…I’m glad you’re here too,” he said quietly, pulling her into a hug.

“Just don’t let anyone punch you in the face and you’ll do well, son,” Howard referenced his own mishap as he came to stand beside his wife. 

“You know my line of work so no guarantees there but I’ll do my best,” Tony responded and held his hand out for Howard to shake. 

Howard looked at his hand long enough that Tony thought it was a rejection before he finally clasped the hand in his, but then pulled Tony in for a brief hug of his own.

As quickly as it began it ended and surprised though he was Tony could read the multitude of emotions going on behind his father’s eyes as he struggled for something more to say or offer. Finally settling on a firm but encouraging, “You’ll do fine.”

When his parents finally left he checked his watch again to find it after 6pm and still no Pepper. She did say that she had an appointment so he wasn’t too worried but every minute that she wasn’t here he eyed the bar wondering if it’d be okay to have a shot to calm his nerves. Honestly, he hadn’t been this much of a wreck planning out the day but suddenly he couldn’t keep still, wondering if it was actually possible to wear a hole in the carpeting from his pacing.

It was probably the added stress of the FBI sting tonight too though he hadn’t had any indication that he was needed for anything yet, so no news was good news on that front. The cold shoulder from Peter also hadn’t been sitting well on his nerves. He was probably still mad at him for not letting him get further involved with the salvage guys but this sting was just going to prove exactly why he hadn’t wanted Peter involved. If he could see Peter this weekend he would have to stress that point to the kid. Let him know it was nothing personal, he just didn’t want to see him hurt again.

The elevator dinged and Tony felt his heart jump in his throat knowing that it could only be Pepper now that was coming to see him, and he was right. Pepper stepped off the elevator but something was wrong. She was still in her work clothes and she didn’t look terribly excited to see him. If anything she looked worried, upset. A far cry from the playfulness of this morning. 

“Pep, what happened? Dress not fit? I used the sizes Fri has on file…”

“Tony,” she said using her firm no nonsense voice that demanded his full attention.

Something major had to have happened and his mind began spinning with every possibility, from one of her parent’s dying, to something wrong with the company, maybe one of the board of directors finally kicked the bucket, Charlie had been looking a little sickly lately, or maybe something had happened with Peter. Would they contact her if so? He was listed as their intern…

“Tony,” she repeated with the same level of firmness, suddenly right in front of him and holding his hands tightly in hers and breaking the spiral of his thoughts. From this close he could see the subtle hints of smeared mascara that hadn’t been wiped away entirely and just why had she been crying? This night was not going the way he hoped it would. 

“Pepper, what’s wrong?”

Whatever was wrong he had to fix it. That’s what his job as a husband was right? Though first he supposed he had to ask her the question. He wasn’t her husband yet and the chances seemed to only be dwindling the longer Pepper took to compose herself. 

Then Pepper smiled. Bright, beautiful, positively radiating. A complete one eighty from her previous stricken expression and his heart couldn’t take this. What was happening? She held onto his hands, tighter if possible, and took a deep breath, letting it loose with her next proclamation.

“I’m pregnant.”

The world had officially turned on its axis, up was down and down was up and Tony was drowning, the only thing keeping him tethered to this world was Pepper’s grip on his sweaty palms and even that was tenuous. He couldn’t even be sure that he had heard her correctly over the ringing in his ears as his blood pumped furiously throughout his body, everywhere but to his brain because he had suffered a complete and catastrophic meltdown, his servers were fried and it was all a big blue screen. 

He had heard those words before, always from some nobody, sycophant claimed that he was the father of their child, even though he always wore a condom and of course everyone backed out at the mention of paternity testing. This though. This was Pepper. His Pepper. The woman he was one three course dinner away from proposing to, telling him that she was pregnant with their child, that he was going to be an actual  _ father. _

_ Holy shit he was going to be someone’s father. _

“Are you okay?” Pepper’s voice finally cut through the blood pounding in his ears and he was sure that he was quite a sight to behold. 

_ Answer her _ , his brain told him.  _ Tell her how blown away you are. How happy you are. Ask her to marry you. You knocked her up before you could even have the decency to propose to her. Her parents are really going to hate you now. _

Instead of saying any of that though he stuttered out, “Are you sure?”

Her eyes softened as he began to work through the fog that had settled over him. “What kind of an appointment do you think I just came from?” she offered him and now it kinda made sense. 

“But we can’t. You were on the pill and we were careful…” he was spiraling again. He wanted to tell her how happy he was underneath but the panic had taken hold instead and was overriding all of his other functions. Fight or flight was on the menu now and he couldn’t stop it.

“And all these methods are still only effective to a certain degree…I know its a surprise. I’m a control freak right and here’s something I had no control over...but I’m not unhappy about it. This is you and me, Tony,” she continued gently and he thought that maybe she understood what his mind was putting him through because she was still so calm, so kind, so absolutely loving and steadfast. Saint Pepper Potts. 

This was...this was fine. He could do this. He could be a father and a husband, the order maybe was a little backwards admittedly, but isn’t that the natural progression of life anyways? Hadn’t he already been dreaming of red headed babies and the whole picket fence deal? He wanted this. He knew that he did. 

“Pepper…” he finally stumbled out but he was still at a loss for words now as he was before. 

“Boss, I’m sorry to interrupt,” Friday’s voice echoed throughout the quiet room, and to her credit she did seem genuinely apologetic. “It’s Peter, he’s in trouble sir.”

“Where at?” he asked, shaking free of the trance he’d been in.

“Staten Island Ferry,” she responded regretfully.

Tony immediately shucked his jacket off and pulled the tie from his neck, tossing both onto the back of the couch. “I need a suit.”

“Already on the flight deck, Boss.”

Tony turned back to Pepper and she didn’t seem happy (why would she be after the way he had just responded to her news and now was immediately abandoning her?), but she nudged his shoulder back.

“Go,” she whispered.

“Don’t go anywhere,” he said reaching forward and hugging her tight against him, hoping to convey all of his feelings with the strength of his body alone. “I love you,” he whispered, voice gravelly from the whiplash of emotions, and then he kissed her temple, her forehead, and then her lips before releasing her and running to the flight deck and his suit, his mind already pushing down his emotions to focus on whatever battle may be ahead.

“I love you too,” Pepper whispered back as she watched him leave, sinking down against the cushions of the couch, her arms coming up to hug her midsection.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cut Tony some slack. He is in shock right now. ;) <3


	26. The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good night/morning everyone! I bring to you 9k of content because apparently I can't write anything less these days. Just a few notes to start. I recap a scene from Homecoming basically verbatim. Generally I hate that in stories but considering how important and pivotal the scene is, I absolutely had to keep it as is though I expand on the character's frame of mind throughout. Also we get a really nice Tony and Howard scene that I am actually very proud of and legit spent 5hrs today rewriting over and over so let me know what you think.
> 
> Also a very happy birthday to marvel-us-world on tumblr. This one is for you. <3
> 
> Finally this monster of a fic has hit over 1000 kudos. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you all.
> 
> Stay safe, I love you. Let me know what you think in the comments down below! It is off to bed for me! <3

Peter had messed up. 

No, that was putting it lightly. He had  _ really, really _ messed up. Not only had he botched an apparent undercover sting against the bad guys, but they had gotten away  _ and  _ very nearly killed everyone on the Staten Island Ferry that evening. And if that wasn’t enough of a failure, to add insult to injury, it was Tony who once again had to come and bail him out of trouble. 

His relationship with Tony Stark had been in a very strange place these last few weeks. Couple of months even. After the birthday party that the man threw in his honor they hadn’t really talked until the night that he...well, Friday, saved him from drowning. He had been dressed down and treated like a child, prevented from being able to continue his investigation into the alien weapons like he couldn’t handle it. 

That had probably been what had stung the most. Before Mr. Stark had trusted in Peter and his abilities enough to bring him to Germany and fight against Captain America, but now suddenly he couldn’t even handle some low life’s? He just didn’t understand it, the drop in trust and confidence. Hadn’t he already proven that he could handle the big stuff? Yeah the Vulture guy had caught him out when he was first chasing after the van and ended in the river, but he had learned so much since then. 

Peter thought maybe Mr. Stark would come around after the text about DC. True he had never responded to it and part of the reason was because he had still felt slighted. The constant on and off switch the hero employed when it came to Peter was confusing and so part of him wanted to give the older man a taste of his own medicine, letting him hang out to dry for a while with no response. The other, more mature part of Peter’s mind had even wanted to talk to him about Washington and the capabilities of the purple power source, maybe collaborate and brainstorm, but that would mean admitting that he hadn’t stopped chasing after answers, and he wanted to prove to himself and his mentor once more that he was ready for Avengers level work. So, he had dug deeper, left the text on read and investigated further until he got lucky with this bust.

Only after he caught the bad guys would he finally text Mr. Stark back, with a not quite I told you so and the man would see the error of his ways and finally offer Peter a regular spot on the Avengers, and maybe more time with the man himself. Peter missed lab time with him, and even working on the occasional car with Howard. It felt normal. Familial. Filling the only hole bigger in Peter’s heart than helping people, the feeling of just belonging. 

He could forget all that now, he knew. Mr. Stark was pissed. He doubted he’d see the inside of his lab ever again. Worse than that, what if Peter had cost someone their life with his ill prepared battle? 

Everything was such a mess and Peter could feel himself spiraling as he tried to get a grip on his emotions while he waited for Mr. Stark-- or Friday technically, because he was sure that the older man had better and more important places to actually be, to come back for him. 

It had been the only thing that Mr. Stark had said to him upon his arrival. 

“Go. Wait for me nearby.”

His tone had left absolutely no room for any argument and so Peter waited and watched the ferry from a distance. There were news helicopters swarming the site by now trying to glean any further information about the disaster and Peter was mesmerized by their circling patterns even as his eyes welled with tears until everything he saw was just a blur.

God maybe he had been wrong. Maybe he wasn’t ready. How could he have miscalculated so much?

The sound of the Iron Man repulsors coming towards him filled his body with dread for the inevitable confrontation. He just had to stay strong, make sure Mr. Stark understood his point and where he was coming from and maybe it wouldn’t end up such a disaster. 

* * *

Tony could feel his body shaking from the adrenaline of the situation. Peter had almost died on his watch again. Worse, he had put hundred other lives at risk with his inability to trust Tony and follow directions. They had been so close to apprehending the thieves, to having them in custody and the ability to roll on whatever Ross was cooking up with them and then the opportunity was just gone. They wouldn’t get a second chance like this. They were lucky that they had a first chance.

Not to mention the FBI was pissed. Peter had interfered at the absolute worst of moments leaving Tony behind to make excuses for the kid and why he was there at all. There could be repercussions through the Accords too for the disruption of a Federal investigation and Tony had had to work all of his sweet talking skills to ensure the FBI that Spiderman would be handled, but it wouldn’t matter when word got back to the committee, or worse, Ross. 

Peter had no idea how deep of shit he had just gotten himself into. Or maybe he had. When Tony finally made it over to the kid after all the wrapping up on the ferry with the FBI and ensuring everyone was safe, he looked like a dejected puppy, feet dangling over the edge of a building. Tony felt himself soften minutely, but this wasn’t just a lab accident or using the wrong size socket wrench and stripping a bolt. This was a big deal. Lives had been at stake. Peter’s most of all. The kid could have been split in half. 

A rush of anger and adrenaline flowed through his veins as he spewed a greeting of sorts. He tried for humor to soften the blow but it wasn’t in the cards. Too much had happened. 

“Previously on Peter screws the pooch, I tell you to stay away from this and instead you hacked a multi-million dollar suit so you could sneak around behind my back doing the  _ one _ thing I told you not to do.”

It would have been impressive that the kid had hacked Stark technology under any other circumstance. 

Peter didn’t rise to the bait. Just turned his head to give a shaky response, reminding Tony that he really was just a kid underneath it all. “Is everyone okay?”

“No thanks to you.” The words came out harsher than he intended but by now he was thrumming with adrenaline, the nervous energy of the events of the last hour all combining together and weighing heavy on his chest. He’d say he was close to a panic attack but he was too keyed up for even that.

Peter’s head whipped back towards the suit offended and just as angry as Tony felt. “No thanks to me??” Came the incredulous reply as the kid turned and hopped onto the metal grating of the walkway. “Those weapons were out there and I tried to tell you about them but you didn’t listen. None of this would have happened if you would have just listened to me!!”

That hurt Tony, making him flinch inside the suit. Did the kid really think that just because he was trying to keep him safe that he wasn’t listening? He may not have responded to the texts but he read every single one he got. He listened to Happy’s debriefs at the end of the night every day, he knew when Peter quit band. Admittedly the decathlon tournament through him but he had just gotten back from India. He still monitored the kid, kept him safe. 

Finally Peter scoffed, looking the Iron Man suit up and down in mocking disbelief. “If you even cared you would actually be here.”

The last straw on the camel’s back was broken as Tony scowled and opened the suit, dropping easily onto the walkway in front of Peter. Peter was clearly shocked and backed up as Tony advanced upon him, his eyes darting up and down, taking in the now wrinkled silk shirt and crumpled tie Tony was wearing, realization sinking in that Tony  _ had _ dropped something important.

That hurt worse than thinking that Tony wasn’t listening. Like he didn’t care what had happened to Peter. He would have been there in person at the river if he had been in the country, didn’t he know that? He had been a little wishy washy because he was trying to protect Peter but he had never not cared.

“I  _ did _ listen, kid. Who do you think called the FBI, huh?” Peter’s eyes grew wider with realization but Tony couldn’t stop, he was too keyed up, thoughts of an unexpected baby, another failed proposal to Pepper, the bad guys getting away, Peter almost being killed for god’s sake. “Do you know that I was the only person who believed in you? Everyone else said I was crazy to recruit a fourteen year old kid--”

The memory of Natasha’s wide eyes and baffled expression flew to his mind from a few months back when he explained to her about the spider kid flying around Queens. She didn’t outwardly say it was a bad idea but it was written on her face. Coming from a graduate of the red room he had known even then that it was a bad idea, but he had been desperate and in the end he thought it had turned out fine. Peter was a good kid that just needed some nurturing. Too bad Tony had failed at that though.

“I’m fifteen,” Peter reflexively corrected, straightening back up to his full height as he seemed to recover from Tony’s unexpected appearance. 

Fifteen years old. Not a man. Not a reformed weapons dealer, not Captain America or a super spy or green rage demon. A literal kid who couldn’t even drive yet. And Tony had almost gotten him killed. 

“No! This is the part where you zip it, okay?! The adult is talking,” he raised his voice, his control beginning to slip, the mask coming down. 

A memory flashed in his mind of being chastised by Howard on one of his rare visits to MIT after Tony had managed to destroy one of the science labs in an accident where he had stayed up twenty four hours too many to prepare for his finals and mixed the wrong chemical compounds. He could have been killed. And had others been in the building at the time, they could have been hurt as well, but he was too busy trying to prove himself. For once he thought he finally understood where Howard was coming from.

“What if someone had died tonight? Different story right because that’s on you,” he said, still pushing forward, a finger reaching out to tap Peter on the chest as he emphasized his point. " And if you had died…” he trailed off, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat, turning his words to gravel, “I feel like that’s on me. I don’t need that on my conscience.”

“Yes sir, I’m-”

“Yes.”

“I’m- I’m sorry,” Peter sputtered out but it was too late and they both knew it.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it,” Tony said, lowering his voice to a quiet whisper.

“I-I understand I just-. I just wanted to be like you.”

Normally, hearing those words would have made Tony proud, but the more his failings became clear the more he knew that he didn’t want or need for Peter to be him. Peter was already so much better, so much more pure and kind. To become Tony, taking the hard way in everything, constantly one step forward and two feet back would have been a great disservice to the kid. 

“And I wanted you to be _better_.”

He let the words sink into the teenagers head for a moment as he steeled himself for what he would have to do next, even though he knew it would be devastating. Tony sighed deeply and broke eye contact.

“Okay, it’s not working out, I’m going to need the suit back,” he tried to move back to the flippant shell of Tony Stark that he had used for years to mask his true feelings, even as he watched Peter’s face crumble in devastation.

“For how long?” The kid asked like it was a cell phone or a video game and not a multi-million dollar suit, his age and naivety showing through.

“Forever,” Tony finished with an air of finality. He couldn’t let the kid risk his life like this anymore. He had to be sure that he was protected and this was the only thing that he knew to do. Pepper had been right. He was crazy to put this kind of responsibility on a teenager’s shoulders. Maybe he still would have been swinging around Queens retrieving stolen bikes and missing cats, but he wouldn’t have been drawn to these weapons dealers, he wouldn’t be trying to impress Tony or earn a spot with the Avengers if Tony hadn't have come along and teased him, giving him that little taste of belonging in Germany. What the hell had he been thinking?

“No, no, no, please-”

“Yes, lets have it.”

“No, please you don’t understand, please, this is all that I have. I’m nothing without this suit,” Peter begged and Tony could see the tears reforming in his eyes. 

A sharp pain went down his left arm, a residual ache from the damage done to his shoulder after Wanda dropped a parking garage on him in Germany. He brought his hand out and rubbed at it reflexively, trying to ease the pain, though he couldn’t help but think how fitting it was to have a flare up now when his heart was breaking just as much for Peter as for his own failures in guiding the boy. 

“If you’re nothing without this suit then you shouldn’t have it, okay?” Another Howard idiom, slightly modified. God, he had been a father of an unborn child for an hour and he was already reverting into the man that he always said he would never be. Maybe this renewed time with Howard had actually offered him some perspective and made him realize that the man hadn’t always been entirely off the mark in his discipline. “God I sound like my Dad.”

Peter was resigned as he stared out the ground and mumbled out a quiet, “I don’t have any other clothes to wear.”

Well, that was one problem that Tony could solve tonight. 

* * *

Tony felt drained by the time he finally made it back to the tower’s flight deck and peeled out of the suit. He tried not to think of Peter’s red and teary face as he shoved a brown bag of clothes from a street vendor into his hands and pointed him in the direction of a discreet bathroom to change. The brown bag Tony now carried held the Spidey suit and probably would for the foreseeable future because he didn’t even want to look at it, his emotions falling somewhere on the spectrum between betrayal and intense guilt. 

Friday took control of the suit, sending it down to Tony’s lab to be restocked with anything that had been used and assessed for any overall performance issues, not that there would be any after this particular use. 

The sun had already gone down as he opened the balcony door back into the penthouse his mind suddenly ruminating on how the perfect lighting for his proposal had been ruined. What a sunset tonight had too. Brilliant hues of pink and orange swirling together beautifully.

What a fucking waste. 

He and Pepper could still make their reservations, he was Tony Stark after all, nobody was giving his table away, but he already knew there was no way to salvage the night. Too much had happened. 

The living area was dark when he entered and tossed the brown bag to the corner of the room, not even caring when it fell open. He pulled his tie off completely and draped it across the back of the couch, then untucked his now wrinkled silk shirt and unbuttoned the top buttons and folded his sleeves back to his elbows. A quick, cursory glance of the room revealed him to be alone and he felt his chest tighten.

“Pepper?” he called out, her absence like a gaping hole.

“She's not here,” a voice called out from behind him. He flinched only slightly at his father’s intrusion but for once, wasn’t all that surprised as the man came around from the bar, two glasses in his hands. “She's downstairs with your mother. Here, you look like you need this,” Howard said, offering him the whiskey.

Well, a drink certainly couldn’t make his night any worse. He accepted it easily and his father clinked the glasses together before taking a sip, Tony held off though. “Why is that?” 

“I don't know,” he shrugged, a little sheepishly as he came around to sit on the couch. “They kicked me out. I think she just wanted some company,” Howard added reassuringly.

“Yeah, okay.” Tony took a long pull from the glass before collapsing back against the couch beside Howard, kicking one of his feet up onto the coffee table even though he knew it drove Pepper crazy when he did that.

“So…” Howard began cautiously, “fourth time wasn't the charm?”

“No. Doesn't look like it. Didn’t really even make it that far you know?” 

Howard nodded along slowly. “I, uh, saw the footage.”

“What footage?”

Howard leaned forward and pushed a button on the tv remote. Instantly the tv was flooded with footage from shakey cell phones and news helicopters of the ferry being sliced in half and then put back together by Tony in his Iron Man suit. Nobody seemed to know the full details about what happened, only that it appeared like Iron Man and Spiderman were working together as a team. That was good, at least. No bad PR for Peter. 

“That footage. That was a great save. I take it something bad went down with the FBI deal then? Pepper said you were called away but we weren’t sure for what until we saw that.”

“Yeah,” Tony said, disinterested, staring at the condensation on his glass, a small rivulet of water running down the side. “They decided not to go quietly and they got away, but that wasn’t even the worst part.”

Howard narrowed his eyes and took another sip from his glass, wiping at his mustache as some of the drink caught in the hairs that he needed to trim. “Don’t take this the wrong way or anything but I thought you had been upgrading Friday to handle the suit in case something went south so you could be with Pepper tonight?”

Yeah, Tony was sure that was the real question his father was after. The man had a good poker face but Tony knew his tells. 

“Are you going to ask me what you really want to know or are you going to keep up the fishing expedition?” he called the man out, dropping his empty glass onto the table with a thump. 

Howard offered a half smile to Tony and didn’t even try to pretend now that he was caught out. “Peter is Spiderman isn't he?”

Tony couldn’t hold back the mirthless chuckle. “He was.” 

“Was?”

_ Please, I’m nothing without this suit _

_ If you’re nothing without this suit then you shouldn’t have it. _

Tony’s gaze remained glued to the carpet. “I took the suit,” he offered finally, his voice quiet.

“You took the suit?”

Tony sighed and leaned forward, running a hand over his face. He was tired and his head had begun to hurt from the adrenaline drop. He wanted nothing more than to rewind the last couple of hours and start this night over again, fix all of his mistakes. 

“Peter blew the FBI deal. I had told him to back off and let me handle it and he went behind my back and interfered anyways. He could have been killed out there and it would have been my fault for putting him in that position to begin with. So, yeah, I took the suit. He wasn’t ready for it yet.” He turned to look at Howard over his shoulder. “For the record I don't need any of your lectures either. I already know I fucked up.”

Howard held up his hands defensively. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”

Yeah, Tony didn’t believe that for half a second, this was a man who had always had an unsolicited opinion on everything from Tony’s inventions to the way he styled his hair. 

“Sure. You expect me to believe that you don’t have an opinion on me letting a teenager run around New York fighting crime?”

Howard raised an eyebrow and cocked his head to the side. “I didn’t say that I didn’t have an opinion and given the situation I think it’s better to withhold that opinion. I just also happen to know how difficult it is to parent a teenager who is too smart and willful for their own good.” 

Tony scoffed and turned away. “I’m not anyone’s parent.” 

Only he was. Or he would be. His thoughts turned to Pepper and the baby she was carrying that he couldn’t even express any happiness about. He wondered if Pepper was sitting with his mother right now, drinking a cup of tea and crying about how horrible he had been in response to the news. He couldn’t say that he would blame her.

“As good as. You care about that boy, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do.”

“And you’d do anything for him?” 

“Within reason.” _Anything._

“Keep him safe at all costs, even if it meant making him hate you?”

“I think I have proven that,” he pointed to the brown bag in the corner, the red and blue uniform spilling out.

“Well, then you are halfway to realizing what everyone else could see from day one about you both. You care about that kid and he puts just as much if not more stock into your opinion of him too. You’re already acting like a father should to that kid, whether you realized you were doing it or not. You’re more than just a mentor.”

“And now he hates me,” Tony lamented quietly.

Howard leaned back further into his seat and took another sip from his glass. “Part and parcel of the trade I’m afraid.”

Of anyone Tony supposed that he did know at least that much about fatherhood. Tony had spent most of his life hating the man, or at least thinking that he hated him. Tony had never been on the receiving end of the hate and disappointment though. He didn’t know how to deal with this feeling from someone that he did care deeply about and it truly bothered him to be the target of Peter’s ire, in a way that it had never bothered him about anyone before. It hurt just as much as if it were Pepper or Rhodey. His family.

But he had done the right thing in the end hadn’t he? He had been putting too much pressure on Peter too young, making him feel like he had to go big trying to bust these weapon guys so he could prove something, so he could impress Tony. Everything felt so jumbled right now. He could use some help parring out his feelings. 

“You’re holding back, you know?” Tony said, turning back again to look at his father with a critical eye. “Howard Stark doesn’t reserve his opinions for anyone, not even his son, so let's have it.”

The older man hesitated. “You just asked me not to give you a lecture.”

“So, don’t lecture me. Teach me. What would you have done? What did you do?”

“I’m not sure the situations can be compared. You weren’t a superhero yet.”

“Well, then if you have anything enlightening to say, maybe say it now, because I feel like I’m drowning. This spat with Peter is just the icing on the cake of my shit evening.

“Why don’t you tell me what else is going on first so we won’t be having two conversations?” Howard prodded. 

Tony wondered just how much the older man was privy to at this point. Pepper had gone down to them while he was away. Had she told them? Should he even be telling his father if not? 

“Before I was called away Pepper told me…” he stuttered off. He was nowhere near coming to terms with the news, to the reality that he found himself on a collision course with. Being a father. 

He jumped up from the couch and grabbed his glass, walking back over to the bar for a refill. Howard sat up from his own seat and slowly approached, leaving his own glass behind on the table. Howard slid into one of the bar stools and patiently waited while Tony refreshed his glass, the ice crinkling together against the crystal before he poured a generous measure. 

The patience that his father was showing was even more unnerving, Tony decided as he took a drink, the whiskey burning sweetly as it went down. He placed both palms down to grip the bar counter to ground him to this moment, and after one more aborted attempt he pushed the words out that had him rocked to his core.

“Pepper’s pregnant.” 

The words sounded strange, foreign to his tongue even now. He watched as his words sank in and his father’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline in shock. Without a word he slid out of the chair and walked back to grab his drink, setting it on the bar in front of Tony.

“In that case, I’ll take another as well,” he motioned to the drink and Tony wordlessly refilled it. Tony anxiously waited as his father took a drink from his own glass, face still etched in shock before he finally found his voice again. “Wow. Congratulations, son, I mean that. That’s- wow,” he took another drink.

“Yeah, don’t congratulate me yet,” he said ducking his head, playing back just hours ago when he stood here with Pepper. “I’m freaking out in case you hadn’t noticed I couldn’t even- god I couldn’t even look Pepper in the eye and tell her how I felt, I was so fucking terrified.” 

Tony brought his fist down against the bar making everything on the bar top rattle from the force. He didn’t care. He’d like to start chucking glasses given the way that he had reacted to Pepper at probably the most vulnerable moment he had ever seen her in. 

“Is this not something you wanted?” Howard asked, cautiously.

“That’s the problem. I have wanted it. I do want it, but I am just so terrified of fucking it all up. Everything with Peter tonight is just confirmation that I don’t have the slightest idea what I’m doing. I don’t know how to do this. I was never meant to be anyone’s father.”

“In that case Tony, let me offer you some very candid advice.” Howard waited until he was completely positive that he had his son’s full attention and leaned forward across the bar, Tony leaning towards the middle to meet him. He kept their eyes locked as he spoke his next words, “Nobody knows what the hell they are doing. Anyone who says they do is lying to you. It's something that you have to piece together as you go.” 

Tony let loose a sigh and slumped back away from the bar. “I’m not sure that’s much help.”

“Maybe not, but it’s a fact. All you can do is your best. Take it from an old man who has made plenty of mistakes along the way.” 

Tony scoffed and took a drink. “I don’t want to make mistakes or have them grow up like I did.” 

“They won’t.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I can. I know it won’t be the same because you already know what not to do. Parenting has a bitch of a learning curve. Your grandfather never met a problem that he couldn’t solve with a belt. I was able to stop that, but I had my own failings. I was too busy for the important moments. I let my fears push you away, whether it was fear for your well being or fear that you’d turn out to be just like me, so I tried to distance myself.”

Howard looked at Tony earnestly, willing him to try and understand what he was saying. That Tony was already such a good man, that he knew well enough about what not to do and could be the father that he had always dreamed of having for himself. Peter was a bit like his training wheels and though he couldn’t see it now, he was already breaking that cycle of shame with the young hero. 

Alas, Tony had always been his father’s son, weighed down by that same anger and self loathing, no matter how well they began to get along. 

“You mean you dumped me in boarding school for half of my childhood.”

Howard figured he probably deserved that dig. “I wanted to keep you safe. There were threats in play that you didn’t know about then.”

“Threats?” Tony echoed.

Howard paused to gather his thoughts, looking down to his feet and back up again. “Do you remember that trip that we took to Hawaii the summer before you went to Andover?”

An image briefly flashed in Tony’s mind of sitting on a sandy beach making sandcastles with Ana. He turned his head up shore and could see his parents sitting on beach chairs arguing, though the sound of the surf drowned out anything that he might have been able to overhear.

“Some.” 

Howard nodded and took a long drink. 

“A threat had been made against me. No big deal right? I mean I helped create the atomic bomb and I had supplied the troops during the Korean war and in Vietnam. Plenty of people always had me on their shit list. Only this time the threat panned out.”

It was Howard’s turn this time to run a hand through his hair and Tony could feel the change of the tension in the air. This was clearly not a subject that Howard relished discussing, if he ever really had. 

“I had just arrived home, just stepped out of the car, when the shooting began. You and your mother were in the kitchen with Ana and all of you could have very easily been killed for my negligence. We were able to neutralize that threat, that attack, but what about the next time? What if you were out with me? I was a bigger threat to your safety than anything else around you, so I did the only thing I knew how to do.” 

“So,” Tony began, parsing through this new information, as if he wasn’t already dealing with enough, “you decided to send me away instead?”

Howard nodded slowly and sensing what the next question would be, immediately jumped to the defensive. “It’s easy with the benefit of hindsight to look back at all the better, smarter things that I could have done, but at the time it seemed the best option. Your mother took convincing but Peggy and even Jarvis thought it might be best. What more you needed a challenging education and you would get it.”

“I could have just as easily gotten one in New York.” 

“Maybe,” Howard agreed. “I just wanted to keep my family safe and if that meant you hated me for sending you away, for keeping you out of danger then so be it. I would take it because I would rather have you mad and alive than loving me and dead. From there...everything just spiraled between us.”

Tony nodded along and crossed his arms. He thought he could understand the crux of the situation and the difficult position his father had been put in even if he could never agree with the decisions that stemmed from it. Maybe there was some validity in his words too.

Tony groaned and leaned forward to thump his head on the bar. “Man, Cat Stevens could really milk a lot of songs out of our relationship.”

“For what it’s worth...Even if I’m not the model father that you needed, you still had the one that you deserved.”

Tony turned to him confused. 

“Jarvis,” he clarified.”I’m not naive enough to think that I’m responsible for any of your good qualities. That’s all your mother and Jarvis’ doing. That’s why I know you’ll do just fine as a father.”

Tony took in the man before him, his father’s closely cropped white hair and trimmed mustache. The crisp, clean lines of his button down. Howard had never been the best father, but as Tony was learning, he had done the best that he could with what he knew. He tried to teach Tony and keep him safe in his own ways and the good moments that he remembered between them were really good. 

His father also wasn’t without the odd pearl or lesson. He taught Tony about the joys of working with your hands to create, whether that was how to rebuild a car from the ground up or the satisfaction of bringing your own designs to life. They shared a similar sense of humor and whether Howard liked to admit it, he hadn’t learned sarcasm all on his own. He also taught Tony how to dress, and how to have a firm handshake, to always maintain eye contact with the person you’re speaking to. He taught him the ins and outs of business and engineering. What the best years and brands of whiskey were. Where Jarvis and his mother taught him compassion, Howard in his own way had taught him strength. 

It didn’t make how Howard treated him right. However, he knew very well how fear and self loathing could mislead and twist someone with good intentions into a bad way. He had created Ultron after all. 

“You weren’t all that bad, y’know. This baby could do worse for Grandpa’s,” he offered with a half smile, hoping that his father would understand what he was really saying.

Howard smiled back. “Grandpa? I’m not sure I will ever be ready to be called that.”

“You look the part.”

“Stop dying your hair and you’ll be here in a couple of years too, son.”

“Never,” he responded, horrified at the implication as he finished his drink and sighed. “So, what do I do about Peter then?”

“There’s nothing you can do. Give him some space. In the meantime though there is someone downstairs that your attentions are probably better spent on.”

“Yeah, that’s probably true.”

Howard stood up and patted Tony on the arm. “I’ll let her know you’re home.”

“Hey, Dad…” Tony called, coming out from around the bar.

Howard stopped in his tracks at his title being used once more. Tony had called him that a handful of times now but each time felt like the very first and sent his heart soaring. Tony moved to his side, his hands shoved awkwardly into his pockets. “Thanks. For the drink. And the talk,” he clarified. 

“You’re welcome,” he responded genuinely.

“It really did help. I feel a little bit calmer than where I began. Imagine how much better off we’d have been if we listened to each other sooner, right?”

Howard chuckled with him. “Might have saved your mother a headache or two.”

The silence fell between them once more but unlike how it used to be, this was comfortable, not tense or angry. They found some common ground and understanding tonight, another building block in righting the past. It was with this thought that Tony went ahead and bit the bullet, pulling his hands from his pockets to wrap around his dad and Howard returned the gesture. 

“I love you, Dad. I know now, you did the best you could.”

Howard’s grip may have grown a little tighter as he quietly answered, “Thank you. You’re going to be an amazing father… and I love you, too.”

* * *

Pepper wasn’t sure what to expect when Howard returned to his and Maria’s floor discreetly wiping at the corner of his eye and letting her know that Tony had returned. Maria looked between her and Howard concerned.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked cautiously.

“Better than. I’ll tell you later,” he said bending down to give Maria a soft kiss and then pausing beside Pepper and pressing a paternal kiss to her cheek. “He’s waiting for you. Go easy on him, huh?”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” she responded, wondering what exactly had transpired and how much Howard knew. She hadn’t told Maria or him about the baby, though it had been on the tip of her tongue when she went down to join them for company when Tony left. She was still coming to terms with the news herself and after Tony’s lackluster response she hadn’t really felt like celebrating like she knew Maria would want to. 

They all watched as Tony kept the Staten Island Ferry from splitting in half and that was when Howard had excused himself to wait for Tony, which was fine by her. She felt like she needed more time to prepare herself before speaking to him again. Now she wondered if that had been a good idea or not as the elevator opened onto their floor. 

The lights were low and the living room was empty, though she could spot evidence of Tony having been there, his tie on the couch and an empty glass on the bar. His shoes were kicked off by the balcony door and so she followed suit and kicked her own off before sliding the door open..

“Tony?” she asked, as she stepped out and glanced around.

The air was cool and the night sky was clear. The view of Manhattan from the tower was one that just couldn’t be beat and always took her breath away at night when everything was all lit up. However, that night it couldn’t compare to the sight before her. 

Up ahead, the table that she and Tony liked to sit outside and drink coffee at in the mornings had been transformed. There was a white table cloth over it--no. No that was a sheet. It was the thought that counted? If it was her good egyptian cotton sheets then they would be fighting later. On that though there were their nicest dishes with what looked like their Thai leftovers from last night, hastily reheated and plated, topped off with two candles and a vase with a single red rose in the center. 

Tony stood shyly off to the side watching her reactions.

“Hey,” he stated simply and she smiled brightly.

“Hey.”

He grinned and lifted his hand to run through his hair and settle on the back of his neck as he looked to the table, to her and back. “I uh, hope you don’t mind, but I couldn’t let our date be a total bust.”

“You just did this?” she teased, as she came to a stop in front of him.

“I know, it’s kinda lame…” he began self consciously and she put a stop to that immediately, reaching out and grabbing his hand in hers and pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

“It’s perfect. It’s us,” she said. How many times had they been too tired or busy over the years and resorted to leftover takeout on the couch with some mindless reality show in the background, or pulling an all nighter on the eve of a big proposal in the conference room with cold pizza from lunch. She preferred this actually. It was nice to get dressed up and go out but there was always paparazzi and fans interrupting or traffic to drive through. Even from the start she had preferred a quiet night in with Tony to anything else. 

Tony chased her lips with his own kiss and then wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. She relished the sound of his heart beating beneath her ear and the way that he would always sigh when he held her, releasing the tension in his shoulders and chest. He reached a hand up to run through her hair and brush gently down her cheek. 

“Pepper, I am so sorry for the way that I acted earlier. I am such an idiot, I can’t even believe how much. Then to leave you hanging like that...I’m so sorry.”

“I know you are,” she said, because she knew that it was true. She felt a little bad for having sprung the news on him in such a fashion, knowing what she did about his anxiety and panic attacks. She just hadn’t been all with it either and she had to know that he was with her, that what happened half a year ago wouldn’t happen again and that he would be there and be committed to them.

Tony pulled back from her and tilted her head so that she was looking into his eyes and she could see the regret there. “I’m sorry,” he said, once more with intense sincerity. 

Words weren’t getting through so she inched forward and kissed him again, her lips moving against his unhurried, and without further purpose than to convey her love and forgiveness. She teased him with her tongue and he opened his mouth for her and she explored this new area with the same slow, thoroughness that she had shown before, gently nipping at his bottom lip too like she knew he loved before he broke away.

“I’m sorry, I’ve gotta get this out before I get totally distracted,” he apologized, the longing clearly on his face. 

“Okay, go on then.”

“Pepper Potts, wind beneath my wings, I love you and I am so fucking honored and happy to be the father of your child. The thought of a baby--being a father scares me to death in some ways, but in others I know I’ll be just fine because I am doing this with you, and you would never let me fail at this. this. So, I want you to know that I am behind you one hundred percent. I’ll learn to change diapers, I’ll feed them at two in the morning so you can sleep, and I’ll take time off from everything so you can keep working if you want to. We can move back upstate to the cabin so they’ll be protected from the cameras and paparazzi. I’m ready to do this with you, sweetheart,” he finished and she could already feel the tears falling from her eyes at his declaration. 

Her reformed wild child boss, total disaster of a boyfriend, was baring his heart to her in ways that he never could have before. She was so proud of how far he had come and she felt foolish for ever having the slightest doubt about his feelings. 

Tony brought his hands up to frame her cheeks, wiping away her tears with his thumbs as he swallowed back his own emotions.

“Now, let me do this right.”

Pepper wasn’t prepared for him to release her face and fall to one knee ( _ in Armani _ no less), as he grabbed for her hands again and took a deep shuddering breath. It was only then that her brain caught up to the scene and she gasped.

“Virginia Potts,” he whispered shakily. “My Pepper. Will you do me the utmost honor, of becoming my wife?”

He had barely finished uttering the words before she was shaking her head. “It’s about damn time, Mr. Stark,” she teased him with his formal title and fell to her knees in her own designer clothes, to wrap him tightly in her arms and kiss every bit of exposed skin she could find.

“Oh, thank god,” he whispered, meeting her for a kiss. “I have a ring, but it’s in Happy’s pocket, I didn’t think tonight would go like this.”

“Wait, you had this proposal all planned out?” she asked and he smiled.

“I even made the dinner reservation over the phone all by myself,” he confirmed. 

“Well, now I’m sorry I didn’t put on the dress first.”

Tony chuckled. “That’s okay, you can still go put it on, I had rather looked forward to taking it back off if everything worked out.”

“Is that so Mr. Stark?”

“It’s true future Mrs. Stark,” he responded in kind and then scrunched his nose up in thought. “Potts-Stark? Stark-Potts?”

“No. Just Stark. I’ve had a lot of time to think about this moment,” she admittedly with a blush. 

“Oh, so that’s what I’m paying you for is it? Doodling Pepper Stark into your notepad during board meetings with little hearts?” he teased her with a wide grin, as if they both hadn’t been waiting for this moment for nearly a decade.

“Technically, I pay you. It’s my name on the checks.”

“I do love a woman with power.”

The playful quips were comforting after an evening of stressful revelations and moments. Pepper would forever be grateful for Tony’s unflinching humor in times of conflict. One of the many reasons she couldn’t wait to marry him.

“So, uh, how about we take this back inside, unless you really have your heart set on eating our probably cold again, Thai food? I’m hungry for something else now,” he whispered, his voice dropping an octave in desire. 

She slowly leaned forward and kissed him for the millionth time that night, gently sucking and tugging at his lip as she pulled away. “Take me to bed, Mr. Stark.”

Before she knew it Tony was on his feet and sweeping her up into his arms. Sometimes it was comical when he tried to do this as she was very nearly the same height as he was, but his hands were deft and his grip tight, having no qualms with their positions now. 

“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you have a secret kink,” he teased, pressing his forehead against hers and rubbing his nose against her own. 

“There’s only one way to find out,” she replied.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, hastily blowing out the candles and carrying her inside to their bed.

* * *

A buzzing noise pulled Tony from his dream of he and Pepper and a little girl with his coloring and Pepper’s spirit fishing at their lake house upstate. The moment had felt so real, so comforting as they laughed together and splashed in the water. He was going to break whatever was shattering that peace now.

His arm flopped reflexively to his side table, feeling around for his phone. Pepper shifted and groaned in his arms at the movement, just as he remembered that he had left his phone in his pants pocket across the room. 

He groaned and opened his eyes to stare at the ceiling and then glance at the clock beside him which read 2:46am. 

“Friday, who is it?” he asked, his voice scratchy with sleep.

“Secretary Ross, boss,” she responded softly so as not to disturb Pepper any further.

“Oh, hell no,” Tony said and turned his body back over and spooning up behind Pepper. “Direct the Secretary to my voicemail please.”

Ross could fuck right off with whatever he thought was urgent enough to interrupt him in the middle of the night. He was on Avengers vacation and if there were any kind of threat that actually required his attention, he had Friday monitoring. At the very least he knew that Natasha would reach out to him.

“Yes, boss,” Friday responded and the buzzing cut out.

Tony sighed in relief and tried to conjure back up the hazy image from his dream as he kissed the crown of Pepper’s head and inhaled the sweet scent of her shampoo. He had just started to drift back off when the buzzing recommenced.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Friday put him on hold and redirect any calls straight to voicemail.”

The buzzing stopped again and quietness fell back over the room, but Tony didn’t close his eyes again. Ross was rarely dealt with so easily. 

Sure enough, ten minutes later, Friday’s voice echoed out again. 

“I’m sorry, boss, he is being very persistent. He is now in the lobby.”

This got Tony’s attention. He detangled his limbs from Pepper’s as he sat up in the bed. “What? Him and how many of his men?”

“Just him.”

Tony rubbed at his eyes with his palm and groaned in frustration. He wasn’t going away any time soon. Best to deal with it now. 

“Friday, let him up to conference room two and keep a suit on standby.”

“Done.”

Tony stood up and stretched as he made his way to the bathroom, grabbing a fresh pair of boxer briefs and sweatpants to pull on. He took his time relieving himself before washing his hands and then rinsing cold water over his face to wake up. Tony still couldn’t believe that Ross had the gall to bother him this late at night, but he sure as hell was going to make him sweat it out a bit while he oriented himself. 

He grabbed his favorite bathrobe off the back of the bathroom door, funny enough it was one that used to be his father’s, and wrapped it around him like armor before sliding his feet into some slippers and grabbing an apple from the kitchen.

The thai food that he and Pepper eventually shared had been satisfying enough before but he didn’t like the thought of not having something to do with his hands when he stood before Ross. 

Tony and Ross were the only two people on the floor and subsequently the Stark Industries conference room being as late as it was, when he finally exited the elevator and entered the large room.

Ross stood at the far end of the room, his back military straight as he seemed entranced by the photos displayed of the past and current CEO’s of SI. He had a manila folder under one arm and never even flinched at the sound of the door opening or closing behind Tony. It was unnerving and reminded Tony a little bit of Obadiah.

“You know, you wake a guy up at three in the morning, the very least that you can do is bring him a cup of coffee,” Tony said and bit into his apple.

Ross turned to face him, a smirk turning up the corners of his mouth. “I’m sorry for the unorthodox time, but I have some sensitive information that I didn’t want to risk getting exposed to anyone else.”

“Next time you can schedule an appointment with my assistant.”

“Oh, sure. I saw that you’ve had quite a busy day today. That was a nice save with the ferry but Ii thought you were retired?”

“I’m on vacation, there’s a difference.”

“Not to the eyes of the Accords. In fact you can even be held liable for the damages caused this evening. You are after all, currently a non active combatant. Yet you helped to interfere in a federal investigation and escalated the situation,” Ross drolled, slowly approaching Tony. 

Tony just rolled his eyes. “You don’t have anything of the sort on me Ross or I’d already be in handcuffs. I was the closest person around and I helped save a lot of lives”

“Oh, you’re right. That’s because it wasn’t you, but Spiderman who did that.”

Tony tensed at the mention of Peter’s alter ago and Ross noticed. 

“So, you do know what I’m talking about then? An anonymous vigilante who hasn’t signed the Accords, swinging around in some pretty familiar looking tech, just like he was at the airport in Germany. Clearly, you must be pals.”

“Does this have a point?” Tony asked, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“I want Spiderman’s name. And I want to know where the fugitive Bruce Banner is.”

Tony could have laughed. “What makes you think that I would give you the answer to either one of those questions even if Ii knew them?”

“Call it a hunch.,” Ross shrugged and tossed the manila folder onto the table in front of Tony. Tony eyed the folder and Ross carefully before flipping it open.

Tony’s stomach gave a sickening lurch from the moment his eyes viewed the content of the folder. Inside were photographs of his mother and Howard walking in and out of the restaurant from their date. Shots of them laughing and holding hands as they walked down the street. Then shots of the bunker in Siberia and even one of Zemo and a photo of Hydra’s logo on the concrete walls. 

“What is this?”

“You don’t know?” Ross played dumb.

“You following me?”

“I’m following all of the Avengers, part of the clause for reinstatement. You’re not special.”

“So, what do you want me to do with this, bullshit? It means nothing to me.”

Ross laughed. “Don’t play the fool to me now. You know your secret has been discovered and I definitely know that it has been. So, let's think about this. How much is this secret worth to you?”

“You’re mistaken if you think anything here is a secret.”

“And what if I say that I can connect you to the escape of then fugitives, Steve Rogers and James Barnes?”

“I doubt it would hold up at this point. My lawyers would have you for breakfast or do you not remember the last time we did this song and dance?”

“And what of your father, Howard Stark?”

“My father is dead. He died in 1991.”

“Then who is this man coming in and out of Stark Tower? You expect me to believe that’s a doppelganger? We got a ninety-eight percent match on our facial recognition software.”

“Sounds like there’s a margin for error then,” Tony shrugged.

“Let's be realistic here Stark. You give me the information I want…” Tony started to interrupt him but Ross held a hand up and talked over him. “Give me the information and we can forget all about this.If you don’t though?” He held up his hands and shrugged. “Then I leak your father’s miraculous recovery from death and then I expose you and him as active supporters of Hydra.”

Tony scoffed. “You don’t have any kind of proof to back up these claims.”

“You sure about that? Enough to risk your whole little empire, your family's lives?” Ross asked, raising his eyebrow. He leaned forward topat Tony’s shoulder and Tony flinched away from his grip. “48 hours Stark, I want my answer.”

He passed Tony but left the folder where it laid, pausing at the conference room door to look over his shoulder. “Oh and make sure you answer my calls this time. It won’t do you any good to leave me on hold this time.”

Tony stared at the perfectly framed photo of Howard’s face until he was sure that Ross was on the elevator and gone. Then he picked it up and threw it at the door the man had just exited, as hard as he could, photos and papers flying all over, a picture of his mother and father smiling landing at his feet.


	27. The Game Is Afoot

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, yeah. Been awhile, eh? I'm sorry dudes. I had another couple weeks of literally just staring at my computer screen trying to will this damn chapter into existence and I was constantly beat into submission. So, I restructured a few things and...still stared at a mostly blank screen for another week. lol 
> 
> It is here now, for better or worse. It's only about 5k so forgive the shortness, but hopefully the next few chapters will be more forgiving. I was thinking the end of the story would be chapter 30 but that was before I had hit this brick wall, so we shall see if that still holds up.
> 
> Also I'm sure there are spelling mistakes somewhere but I don't even care. My eyes were crossing going over this doc and it's 1am and I have to work in a couple hours so I gave up. lol 
> 
> Thank you so much for your lovely reviews and for sticking with me through my blocks. You all are amazing as always. Stay safe, enjoy, and as always let me know what you're thinking in the comments. I think the general consensus is that Ross needs to die a painful death right? That feeling is only going to grow over the next couple chaps. :D Have fun with that.

Tony would not be going back to sleep tonight. Didn’t even try it. After Ross left and he threw that damned file he just wound up picking every bit of it back up and studying it, trying to ascertain just how much real info that Ross had on him or his parents. It’s not like they actually were part of Hydra so he wasn’t so much concerned about that, but evidence could be manipulated, and he hadn’t exactly been in the right frame of mind to do a sweep on the Siberian bunker. Who knows what information Ross could have come across. His parents had been held captive against their will. If there was any kind of video footage it probably wouldn’t take much to doctor it up to fit the secretary’s narrative, which meant that Tony had to be real smart about this. 

No way would he be giving up Peter and even if he knew anything about Bruce’s whereabouts he sure as hell wouldn’t tell Ross that either. 

When his eyes began to water and blur from looking over the papers and the photographs for too long he finally cut his losses and cleared out from the conference room, heading back to his floor. His anxiety had been going nonstop since Ross appeared and he was sure that the man had done this in the middle of the night just for that exact reason. To catch Tony half asleep and off guard and see what he could push him into agreeing to. Well, the joke was on him because anxiety or not, Tony often did his best work sleep deprived and under pressure.

Still. He could use a second opinion.

He hadn’t wanted to wake Pepper, but he needed another brain, and for something this big, with implications that could ripple across and affect all of SI, she was the best person for the job. 

Gently he woke her from her sleep, sitting beside her on the mattress. She stirred and stretched, reaching out for the light and clicking it on. 

“Tony, what’s wrong? Nightmare?” she guessed.

“In a sense. We have big trouble going on and I need your help.”

This seemed to help shake any remaining sleepiness from her as she sat up in the bed fully, propping herself up with pillows. Tony shoved the folder in her hands and jumped up from the bed, pacing back and forth as he explained Ross’ clandestine visit and his threats, biting away at his nails in between, a nasty habit he hadn’t quite been able to shake when he got worked up. 

“What do you think?” he asked, as she flipped through the photographs, taking it all in with tired eyes.

“I think we need a good offensive plan of attack to beat him at his own game.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” he said stopping in his tracks and pointing at her. “We have forty eight hours, what can we do?”

“You won’t like it.”

“I’m passed protesting tonight.”

“We’ll need to do a press conference. Control the narrative around what happened before Ross and his ilk can have a chance to twist the press against your father. Do we know what kind of “evidence” he thinks that he has?”

“Just the photos for sure, though he is hinting at a connection to information from Siberia.”

Pepper nodded her head. “The photos aren’t a bad thing, but his trump card is Siberia. We need to sit down with Howard and find out everything, and I mean everything that happened while they were captive.”

“Yeah,” he sighed and ran a hand through his messy bedhead, “I know.”

“Hey,” she said gently and he turned his eyes to focus on her. “Everything will be alright. We were going to need to bring your parents to the public sphere sooner rather than later anyways. They couldn’t stay in your gilded tower like Rapunzel forever,” she teased, trying to lighten the tone. 

Her words fell flat to him though. 

“I know but...not like this,” he spoke softly, collapsing back onto the bed with a groan.

“Not ideal, I agree, but trust me on this one. I know how to handle the media and we have some of the best lawyers in the country if all else fails.” 

She moved down the bed to lay on her side beside him, her face propped up on her hand. She used her free hand to run gently across his cheek, comforting and reassuring him. Yes, they had been dealt quite the curve ball, but if anyone had real secrets to hide here it was Ross, and he wasn’t going to like waging war against The Starks. 

“How do you stay so calm all the time? It’s like the universe is trying to give me a nervous breakdown but there you are, standing strong and firm in the midst of a hurricane.”

“This isn’t my first time running damage control," she offered simply. 

"I don't know what you could possibly be talking about," he responded innocently. 

Pepper huffed and sat up on the bed, looking down over him with her arms crossed. "You and I must remember the early 2000’s very differently then. Besides, ‘Tony Stark’s parents are alive and not Nazi’s’ is a lot easier of a sell than ‘Tony Stark didn’t mean to break that paparazzi’s nose,’” she said, nudging his leg with her foot.

“Yeah, well, that guy deserved it. He insinuated you got your job by sleeping with me. I should have let you demonstrate to him with the pepper spray how you  _ actually _ got the job,” Tony laughed, recalling the memory.

Pepper back then was still Virginia, and she had played perfectly into one of his fits of boredom. He purposefully moved a decimal point over one place further, resulting in an error that would have cost Stark Industries millions if it weren’t caught, which in hindsight probably was not the best way to test his accounting team. However, he wanted to see if anyone had the gall to call out his mistakes or if his company had been filled with ‘yes men and women’ who were too scared to speak up for themselves, which would have been a further detriment to the company if his math ever was in fact wrong. 

Then entered Virginia Potts, determined to gain an audience with him no matter what Happy thought, and when he tried to turn her away and personally escort her away from Tony's office, that’s when the pepper spray came out, a new name was born, and a friendship formed that eventually evolved into their current relationship. 

Tony had probably loved her from that very moment, face red and angry as she triumphantly burst through the doors of his office and highlighted exactly how incompetent he and his staff were, and she didn’t care if he fired her just as long as he fixed the damn decimal point. 

When the paparazzi came after Pepper with his slurs and derogatory remarks, even though he had still been half hungover that day, he immediately recovered and caught the bastard with a right hook that he never saw coming. He probably shouted some choice phrases at the guy too. The rest of the memory was blurry except for when he caught a small smile at the corner of Pepper’s cheek, even as the rest of her face was set in exasperated disapproval. 

“It might have saved you a hundred grand if I had."

"Money well spent," he shrugged, not the least bit apologetic for the encounter. 

“I suppose if you have it. And like that asshole, this crisis will pass too. Your parents aren’t going anywhere and neither am I. So," she clapped her hands together and leaned back against the pillows, "come cuddle back up beside me, we can watch  _ Cosmos _ and fall back asleep to the dulcet tones of your science crush." 

Her tone was soothing and inviting and even though he knew there'd be no sleep for him he still felt a twinge of guilt for waking her after the day and evening she'd had. Not to mention sleep deprivation probably wasn't good for the baby and that's something he had to take into consideration now. So, he gave in, climbing under the blanket and letting Pepper nestle in beside him as Friday queued up their show and Neil DeGrasse Tyson began speaking of the universe that Tony had gotten an all too up close look at. He pet Pepper's hair gently as she began to drift, his eyes firmly fixed on the tv, his mind however was focused only on what he had to do next. 

Pepper wasn't going to like it. 

* * *

“Tony, as your best friend, don’t take this the wrong way but what the fuck? This is probably the stupidest plan you have ever had in our thirty-two years of association. Are you out of your mind?” 

Rhodey had barely had time to finish his morning physical therapy before Tony came bursting onto his floor with a hell of an info dump that he definitely was not ready for this early. He recapped the previous evening from Spiderman, to engagements and babies and then ultimately to Secretary Ross’ blackmail. It was enough to give a man whiplash. And to top it all off, he had to come to him with quite possibly the dumbest, riskiest plan and expected Rhodey to fall in without complaint. 

“It’s a good plan and you know it is,” Tony said, sipping at a thermos of coffee.

“It’s crazy, is what it is.”

“And who pulls off crazy better than anyone that you have ever known, honeybear?”

Rhodey shook his head back and forth, pointing his finger at his friend. “No, don’t you honeybear me. This is different and you know it. You’re going to be a Dad now, Tones. You can’t do this shit when you’re a dad.”

Tony sighed and put his coffee on the kitchen table between them and ran a hand through his hair. He looked awful, the stress clearly visible on his face even as he spoke of his grand plan to put an end to Ross. Rhodey could tell he hadn’t slept much if at all, the dark circles under his eyes betraying his otherwise manic energy. It reminded Rhodey of long nights at MIT when Tony was working on DUM-E or any number of other projects. He could never get Tony to listen to him then either. 

“That’s part of why I know that I have to do this. The long game isn’t going to cut it anymore, we have to do something  _ now _ .”

“And this is the  _ best _ that you can come up with?” Rhodey asked doubtfully.

Tony held his hands out around him. “Look I am open to suggestions, but I’m running against the clock now. It’s really not a bad play and you know it. We let Ross think that he’s holding all the cards and when he lays down his hand we hit him with the Royal Flush. He has to be stopped.” 

Rhodey knew that. He did. And maybe what Tony had laid out wasn’t such a bad plan so much as it was always the same self sacrificing bullshit that his best friend always seemed forced into. It reminded him of the conversation Tony had told him about after the Battle of New York, after he had pushed War Machine to its limits getting back to the States from the middle east. After plenty of chiding about why Tony better not ever fly through another portal and maybe a few tears and hugs, Tony had given him the full rundown of what had happened and his stare down with Steve Rogers.

It had pissed him off. 

Whatever Rogers and Tony believed in their own minds, Rhodey had always known the truth that Tony was always the first to lay down on the wire when he needed to. It wasn’t fair then, it wasn’t fair with the Accords, and it wasn’t fair now. 

“But why does it have to be you? Why not bring Steve in on this, or Nat? Have them expose this asshole.”

“Ross already has the Avengers in a vice and their credibility is still in the dumps. They’ll play their part when it’s time but I’m the lead of this play. It's my family on the line, I have to do this.”

Rhodey groaned and covered his face with his hands. 

_ Self sacrificing idiot. _

“You really are an idiot, you know?” he mumbled against his hands.

“You love me anyways,” Tony grinned, that same smug ass smile he always had when he got Rhodey to agree to his shenanigans. “Does this mean you’re in?”

“Are you sure that the information is on the Raft?”

“He doesn’t have any safer place to store it. He can’t keep it on government servers. The Raft is his baby, his domain. Even if Friday can’t find everything that we’re looking for, there will be enough to put him away. What he did to Wanda is a human right’s violation in itself.”

Rhodey looked his friend in the eye, searching for any scrap of doubt. There was fear and worry but no doubt. Tony believed in his plan, crazy as it was, and as always his conviction had Rhodey falling in line too. 

He leaned back in his seat, never breaking eye contact with Tony and tried to convey all of his own worries and fears, that this could turn out very bad if he wasn’t careful, that there was so much more at stake for him personally, but Tony never wavered. He knew what the cost of failure would be and he wasn’t going to let that happen. 

“I want it very clear that when all this is over and done with and Pepper is looking for heads to cleave that I am doing this strictly under duress and that I objected at every opportunity.”

“Duly noted,” Tony responded immediately. 

“Then you know I’ve always got your back,” Rhodey sighed and held his fist out to Tony to bump back.

He hadn’t left his friend hanging before and he definitely wasn’t going to start now. 

* * *

_ Bestman Salvage _ wasn’t much to look at, tucked away on the river, not far from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On the outside it was as any other industrial warehouse, a large building with aluminum siding and a tin roof. The building was fenced off except for the entrance, it’s yard littered with different piles of lumber, metals and odds and ends. The only thing that seemed out of place was Tony's BMW parked in the gravel lot. 

He exited the vehicle cautiously, still not a hundred percent sure what kind of welcome he could expect from Adrian Toomes and his crew when they realized who was knocking at their door. Friday was on standby with a suit if needed and Tony couldn’t wait until he finished his nano suit and could carry that around with him instead. For now though he double checked that the watch gauntlet was secured, straightened his suit and made for the entrance. 

Inside the warehouse was a reception area that smelled of steel and musty basement, what looked like oil staining the various surfaces where it had come off of the worker's hands. The young man sitting behind the desk, askew with papers, did a double take when the bell above the door signaled Tony’s entrance. 

“Holy shit,” the kid mumbled, and looked behind him to a door that Tony knew from the blueprints Friday had pulled, led to the main warehouse. “Uh, how can I help you, Mr Stark?”

Good the kid knew who he was. Hopefully they could skip the formalities. 

Tony smiled and slipped off his sunglasses, tucking them away into his jacket pocket. “I’m looking for Adrian Toomes? Is he here?” 

The kid glanced towards the door again and back. “Do you have an appointment?”

Tony chuckled and played up his image. “I’m Tony Stark. Do you really think that your boss won’t be interested in what I’m offering just because I haven’t called ahead?”

The kid seemed to think on it for a moment before picking up an ancient corded phone and pressing a speed dial option. He turned away from Tony as it rang, his chair squawking awfully as he tried to gain privacy. Tony allowed him this and walked around the small room looking around. There were photos and even a few press clippings of the  _ Bestman Salvage _ crew cleaning up after the events of 9/11 and even Hurricane Sandy. Toomes had always seemed like a stand up guy from the information that Tony had been able to find on the guy. He wondered when all of that changed. 

“Sir, Tony Stark is here…” he heard the kid mumbling into the phone the response was indecipherable. “He’s right here! I’m not making this up, just send the boss, asap.”

Tony turned back to the kid who nervously smiled as he hung up. 

“He’s on his way.”

“Great.”

Tony continued to wander for the few minutes it took for the warehouse door to squeak open and a haggard man in jeans and a plaid button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up came through. His eyes widened when he found that the kid at the desk had not been lying but he easily turned it into an easy grin.

“Well, holy shit, Jerry wasn’t kidding. Tony Stark is really in my warehouse!” He wiped his hand on a rag from his back pocket and then stuck out his hand in greeting.

Tony immediately accepted, matching Toomes’ firm calloused grip. Here was another man that definitely knew how to work with his hands and Tony felt a minor respect at that at least. Whatever had led him astray, he took confidence in knowing that he probably hadn’t always been that way. 

“You’ll have to excuse me, I wasn’t expecting to meet with someone of your stature today. What can I do for ya, man?” Toomes asked, after they pulled away and placed his hands on his hips. 

“I actually come to you with a business proposition.”

“A proposition?” 

“Yeah, I promise it’s worth your time. Maybe we can talk about it while you give me a tour of your fine warehouse?” 

Toomes ran a hand through his hair and laughed with only the slightest hint of nervousness, looking back at the warehouse door. “A tour? Well, why the hell not. It’s probably not as nice or fancy a place as I am sure that you are accustomed to but I’m happy to show you around.”

“Lead the way,” Tony spoke, gamely and followed behind Toomes.

The warehouse was mostly just a larger extension of what could be found outside. Rows of salvaged wood including doors, window frames and two by fours. There were rows of old clawfoot bathtubs in various states of rust and decay, piled beside further rows of old washers and dryers. 

And it went on like that, Toomes led Tony through rows of old salvaged items, occasionally telling a story about a particular piece or operation. Tony listened and nodded along, occasionally adding to the conversation where he could, doing his best to put the man at ease but there was a tenseness to Toomes’ physique that grew the longer Tony didn’t immediately divulge what he was wanting.

There was nothing that Tony could see that could implicate Toomes as the weapon producer but what he was seeing now was really only half of the warehouse. He was sure that this was just the front that the man put out to the public to hide where his money was truly coming from. He didn’t think that the man would be so stupid to show him anything illicit, but he wished he had something more concrete. Luckily, that was just why he was here though. 

As they came up on rows of steel beams and rusted metal junk Toomes finally came to a stop and turned to Tony.

“Look, I know you’re not interested in any of this bullshit. Let’s cut to the chase and tell me what you’re really doing here.” He said it all with a casual smile but Tony could detect the sharpness beneath. 

Tony wasn’t going to make it that easy though.

“This place is pretty impressive I must admit. Business, okay?” Tony deflected. 

“We do enough,” Toomes said defensively, his hands flexing shut.

“I dabble a little in salvage operations here in the city too, the department of Damage Control. Heard of it?”

Toomes huffed. “Yeah, you put a lot of my friends out of business with that stunt.”

“But you survived?”

“I learned to adapt.”

“Not that I don’t love an underdog tale but didn’t this place nearly go under in 2012? You over extended yourself on workers and equipment, filed a chapter eleven bankruptcy. Any of that ringing a bell?”

Toomes’ eyes went dark and his tone changed to low and dangerous, though he kept the half smile on his face. “And all because some asshole created a way to get paid for his own messes. My crew was here long before you and your superhero pals and we’ll be here long after you’re gone.”

Tony was unperturbed. “Interesting. It’s curious is all. You file for chapter 11 and then mysteriously less than a year later have a surplus in your bank account. Big upswing in business all of a sudden?”

Toomes remained silent. 

“Okay, fine. Just tell me one thing then,” Tony said, moving into Toomes space and looking at him in the eye. “Did Secretary Ross approach you or did you go to him?”

Toomes shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“You sure about that?”

“I think I would know.”

“It’s funny, I almost believe you.”

“I don’t give a shit what you think. I have a lot of hustle and a family to provide for, so I busted my ass to keep us afloat and it paid off. I’m sure you rich types don’t have the slightest idea what I’m talking about. You’ve never had to work a day in your life, Stark.”

“And I’m just trying to take care of my family too. The shit you’re meddling in is going to backfire one way or another. It may not be today but eventually you’re going to be too desperate, too greedy and you’ll shoot yourself in the foot. Now do you think that Ross gives a damn at all what happens to you when you crash and burn?”

Tony paused and tried to let that statement sink in. He had known plenty of Adrian Toomes in his life and he knew when someone was being played. Ross would not hesitate to bury this man, probably on the raft, never to be heard from again. 

Toomes seemed to be mulling it over, his jaw set in a tight clench. He needed just another push. 

“It’s not too late. We could work something out if you give up Ross. Help me take this bastard down.” 

Toomes looked him up and down and for a moment Tony thought he had him before he leaned forward and sneered. “We’re done here.”

The opportunity for now was gone, but he had planted the seed of doubt and sooner or later when the chips came down he’d roll to save his own skin. 

“You seem like you’re a decent guy, or at least you used to be. Take my card and sleep on it,” Tony pressed the card into Toomes reluctant hand. “Oh, and one last thing. I get why you don’t want to give this up. This Vulture guy under your employ has some pretty impressive tech which unfortunately you’re unable to maintain without this tech you’ve been stealing. Still not a match for Iron Man though, and I’m done handing out freebies. Next time he comes out, he’s done.”

Images of Peter crashing into the Hudson and struggling to hold together the ferry yesterday were seared into Tony’s brain and there was no way in hell that he was going to let that guy back out on the streets unchecked. Peter may be sidelined and safe but he owed it to the kid to take care of the Vulture once everything with Ross was wrapped up. If he were lucky he’d get them all in one fell swoop. That was what this plan was for after all. 

“Wish I could say it was a pleasure meeting you.”

“Yeah, me too. I’ll just show myself out, yeah?” Tony asked, as he put his hands in his pockets nonchalantly, his threatening demeanor melting away back into casual indifference. “Be seeing you.”

He left Toomes standing in the middle of the warehouse, the threat clearly laid out along with his only salvation. If he were as smart as he thought he was then he would take him up on the offer but Tony wouldn’t hold his breath. At least not for now. 

He breezed passed the still bewildered boy at the counter and out into the parking lot and the cool fall air. A breeze rolled up from the river, flowing through his hair as he climbed back into the car and pulled out his phone, setting it on the dash. 

“Did you get all that Fri?”

“Of course, Boss.”

“And the warehouse. Is this definitely our place?”

“I detected several unusual energy signatures that were in line with or similar to the Chitauri core’s used in Wakanda. According to the scans I’ve run, they are keeping dozens of weapons on site and producing more as we speak.”

“And how long do you suspect until he’s on the horn with our beloved secretary?”

“Detecting a dial out to an unlisted number as we speak, Boss.”

“Our pawn is in place perfectly then. Moves and countermoves, Friday. I think we can call this exploratory visit a success.”

If only the rest of the plan could be put into motion so easily. 

It was only going to get much worse before he could make things better. 

“Let's go home, Fri.”

* * *

Adrian watched and waited for the second that Stark’s smug ass was out of the warehouse before finally retreating to his office and collapsing into the worn leather chair behind his desk. Finally he looked at the card that had been given to him and rolled his eyes at the arrogant minimal nature of the design. 

**_You Know Who I Am_ **

**_212-555-0199_ **

“Yeah, that’ll be the day,” he mumbled, tearing the card in half and tossing it into the trash can. 

He leaned back in the chair with a sigh when his eye caught on a photograph of his wife and Liz and for the briefest moment he wondered if maybe Stark had been right. Maybe he should take him up on his offer to turn in Secretary Ross. He couldn’t keep this job up forever. Resources were becoming scarce, the jobs harder and harder to pull off and that was before he had been on the radar of the Avengers. He couldn’t imagine anything would get any easier from here. 

He had plenty saved away for his family, they would be okay. He was sure whatever deal he could cut would still probably end up with him at Riker’s or worse. 

Then again. If he could just do this one last score, he could make enough to retire on for good. He could take his wife and daughter and get the hell out of here and they would never have to know the things that he had done to keep them all afloat. He couldn’t deal with the way they would look at him if they knew the truth. Like he was just some common criminal. Everything he did had always been for them, so they would never want for anything like he had growing up. 

He could do this. 

He just had to make sure Stark was out of the picture. 

Adrian grabbed his cell phone, ignored a text message from his wife about when he was going to fix their broken tail light, and scrolled through his contacts until he found the number he was looking for and dialed. 

The line rang a couple of times before it was answered with a gruff, “What do you need?”

Adrian sat up straight in his chair at the sound of Ross’ voice and summoned up some of the anger that had been simmering underneath since he found out that Stark was in his building. 

“Listen, it’s one thing to have some bullshit vigilante kid on mine and my guy’s asses, but now I have Tony fucking Stark knocking on my door. How the hell am I supposed to work like this?”

Ross actually had the nerve to laugh in his ear and he felt himself grow angrier at the man. He was such a dick, but unfortunately he wouldn’t have gotten this far all of these years without him. 

“This isn’t funny. You know it’s your ass on the line here too.”

“It is funny because I’ve got Stark exactly where I want him. Don’t worry about him. He won’t be a problem anymore after tomorrow. You just worry about getting the next shipment and prepare to clear out of there.”

* * *

On the other side of the line Ross watched as his photographers sent him photos of Tony’s visit to Toomes warehouse. They had continued to unknowingly follow him around and for the second time in a week, produced real results. 

These he could work with. Further insurance for if Tony tried to flake on their deal. 

“36 more hours, Stark. The clock is ticking,” he smiled, and began the necessary drafting of a warrant for Tony Stark’s arrest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I am sure I am grossly misrepresenting the things that the Secretary of Defense can or would do, but we are going with some hand wavy politics and legal things here, so don't beat me up too much over it. 
> 
> And Just what the fresh hell does Tony think he is doing? Hopefully his vague ass plan is as solid as he has lead us to believe...


	28. The Press Conference

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Tuesday everyone! 
> 
> Thank you wonderful people for all the love you guys always give me. It is legit the fuel that fires my inspiration and I love bringing content to you (mostly) every week. <3 I just cannot stress my love for you enough. <3
> 
> So, just a heads up. There probably won't be a chapter next monday as I have a friend visiting for the week. If possible I will try to work on the chapter after work this week and try and get it posted saturday, but that may not be possible. As always you can keep up to date with the store on tumblr for all the latest updates, at 12-16-91-stark. <3
> 
> I hope you enjoy this weeks chapter. We're getting into the quicksand this week and I'll go ahead and accept all of your creative death tips for Ross in anticipation for the ending. ;) As always, sound off in the comments down below and let me know what you think!

“Hey, I’ve got a surprise for you,” Pepper called from the living room when she heard the elevator open and Tony’s unmistakable gait. 

She had spent most of the day preparing for the press conference scheduled for tomorrow evening, drafting speeches and answers to anticipated questions, not that Tony had ever bothered to follow the cards before, she still liked having a point of reference to keep him on task. The conference itself was being kept as quiet as possible, including all of the most fair reporters that they had dealt with through the years, all bound to silence until the conference in exchange for the scoop, so they didn’t give their hand away too early and possibly force Ross to take preemptive measures.

Now that Tony was home they could get to the heart of the matter and that meant dinner with The Stark's and figuring out what exactly could be used against them and how to assuage any public concerns. 

“Are we talking like a kinky Tuesday’s surprise or surprise Tony, here’s a stack of paperwork with enough detail to put Tolkien to shame to read and sign?” he asked distractedly, coming around the couch and placing a kiss to Pepper’s forehead before plopping down on the seat next to her, his attention mostly fixated on his phone.

“As if you actually read anything I make you sign anyways.”

“Hey, I skim through the pages. I’m more empathizing with your pain because I know you  _ do _ read every line.” 

“Someone has to.”

“Well, we already know my shortcomings, now what’s this surprise?” he asked again, sliding his phone into his inside jacket pocket. 

Pepper smiled. “Well, if it helps to simplify things for you, think more along the lines of the consequences of kinky Tuesdays.”

She leaned over and grabbed her purse from the side of the couch and put it on the coffee table as she rummaged through the pockets. 

“You already told me you were pregnant or is this one of those mommy brain occurrences I’ve read about online?”

Pepper paused in her search and turned to him, her eyebrow raised in disbelief. “Mommy brain?”

“I have been awake for a really long time,” was the only defense that he provided. 

“Well, I meant to give you this last night and then everything went sideways and we were both a mess,” she continued, finally finding the small white card from her appointment yesterday and extending it out towards Tony.

“I hate being handed things.”

“Not from me.”

“Only when I’m not sure what I’m taking,” came his skeptic reply but he still bridged the distance between them to take the card from her hand. 

Pepper chewed her bottom lip apprehensively, already knowing the contents of the card, its image forever inscribed in her mind. She wasn’t sure why she was so nervous, Tony had already proven his enthusiasm for what waited inside but the feelings hit harder when it was right there in black and white facing you. So, she watched intently as he opened the card, studying every subtle tic of his face, his expression morphing from one of playful curiosity to mild confusion. 

“Is this…?” he trailed off, eyes flickering to hers and then immediately back to the sonogram, studying it as intensely as he would one of his creations in the lab. He sat up in his seat, coming to rest shoulder to shoulder with her and brought one hand up to cover his mouth, a quiet “wow,” murmured out of the corner of his mouth. 

Pepper felt the nervous energy leave her body at the site of Tony’s quiet awe, tension melting away from her chest and shoulders. She leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder and looked down at the photo with him.

“When they realized that I was pregnant they wanted to do an ultrasound to see how far along I was. I wasn’t quite sure, my periods can be so irregular sometimes. That’s why it took me so long to suspect anything was amiss at all.” Her words were quiet and calm, easing any anxiety that may be trying to establish a foothold in his mind. She wouldn’t be able to hold it off forever of course, Tony’s anxiety had always stemmed from a need to protect his loved ones and considering everything that was going on already with Ross and his father, she just wanted this one moment to be happy and untouched. 

“That’s uh. That’s definitely a baby,” he said, tracing the distinctive roundness of the baby’s head with the hand that had been covering his mouth. “I thought it’d be more of an indistinguishable blob at this point, but this...wow. That’s our baby,” he broke off in a hoarse whisper. 

“That’s our baby,” Pepper echoed, snuggling closer, letting one of her hands run up and down the middle of his back soothingly. He quietly sighed and leaned his own head against hers on his shoulder. 

Tony sniffed and cleared his throat beside her. “So, what’s the verdict? How long until D-Day?” 

“They said I’m almost twelve weeks, so the tentative due date is April 13th.”

Tony nodded and hummed, leaning back again against the couch, the photo still gripped in his hand. 

“What?” 

He poked her side gently and wiggled his eyebrows. “It was the reunion sex,” he said, a mischievous grin breaking out across his face.

“Oh my god,” she groaned but couldn’t completely disguise the laugh that bubbled up in her chest, even as her cheeks heated up in embarrassment. 

“I’m just saying, I knew the sex was amazing but I didn’t know it was baby making amazing.”

“You’re incorrigible!” she laughed and let him pull her down against his chest, his arms wrapping around her tightly. 

“That’s why you love me,” he said, pressing soft kisses on her head. 

They both were quiet for the next few moments, just enjoying each other’s company and memorizing every fuzzy detail of their baby's photo. It was hard to imagine that in just a few short months they would bring a child of their own into the world, half her and half Tony. A family had never been something that was too high on Pepper’s list of priorities, she had always been so rigid and career oriented, determined to prove herself in a male dominated world. She didn’t have time to dream about fairytale weddings or someone running around calling her Mommy. 

Then she fell in love with Tony. 

Everything had changed for her after that. Not all at once but a gradual change that unfolded over the years. Suddenly, she could picture that dream wedding, a small, elegant affair somewhere quiet and away from all the media and stresses of New York or Malibu. Maybe a beach somewhere, or at a quiet lakeside, beautiful outdoor arrangements and twinkle lights, dancing all night long in Tony’s arms. She’d even quietly started subscribing to Bridal magazine under her alias (lord help her if the media ever found out that Pepper Potts was getting wedding magazines, she’d never hear the end of it), and longing to be the different women on the pages. 

After the pregnancy scare not too long after the Mandarin incident her mind shifted again. She imagined a little boy with her nose, Tony’s eyes and that same mischievous smile he gave to her moments ago. She still didn’t know how it could work. She was a CEO, constantly travelling and working, Tony was an Avenger, enough said about that. There was no way that it could work without having to hire a nanny and that wasn’t something that she ever wanted to do. She wouldn’t just pass her child off for someone else to raise while she worked, it wouldn’t be right. 

Now though she didn’t feel so scared or worried about how they would make it all work. Tony was proving his responsibility more than ever, slowing down after Ultron, taking the sensible pathway with the Accords. He was trying harder than he ever had to put as much into their relationship as he could and she recognized that change and growth. She knew that they would be able to figure out the logistics together. 

Besides, maternity leave wasn’t sounding too bad right now. She couldn’t remember the last time she had slowed down and taken it easy. She and Tony always lived a mile a minute, but these last few months since his parents' return had helped reiterate how precious life could be. 

“Have you told them?” Pepper inquired, knowing that Maria Stark was going to absolutely lose her mind over a baby.

“That depends, was I not supposed to? I may have let it slip to Howard but in my defense I was in crisis mode”

“How is that different from any other day?” 

“Touche,” he relented with a careful nod. “So, you’re not mad at me for spilling the beans already? It just kinda came out. Howard was just listening and actually being supportive, which as you know, in and of itself is exceptionally unusual so my guard was down.”

“I expected nothing less,” she teased. “Besides, I'm almost twelve weeks. We’ve just about blown by the danger zone threshold. We can start telling people. Quietly,” she emphasized.

“Oh thank god because I may have told Rhodey this morning as well.” Then Tony frowned and craned his neck to look at her. “The danger zone?”

“Well, you know,” Pepper began, shifting uncomfortably beside him, “There’s always a chance of miscarriage, but especially within the first twelve weeks. And I’m not exactly the youngest new mother…”

“Nonsense, you can’t be a day over twenty-five,” he quickly inserted before she could let any of her own worries and doubts creep in. She smiled softly.

“Tony…”

“I’m serious.”

“Well, whatever you think, it’s just basic biology. But I’m fine. Baby is fine too according to the doctor. I just wanted to make sure I knew what I’d be walking into tonight with your parents.”

Tony pursed his lips and nodded along with her. “Well, I doubt Dad has said anything or else you would have already been accosted by my mother.”

Pepper smiled for an entirely different reason now, hearing Tony call his father by his proper moniker. She didn’t think that he meant to, and he certainly still called him Howard more often than not, but the tiny little slips gave her hope. She wanted them all to be a proper family, their child growing up and having a good relationship with their grandparents, and the progress that he was making in forgiving or at least understanding his father’s point of view was light years from where they had started. 

The pride she felt swelling for him in her heart could not be contained so she leaned over and placed a gentle kiss to his lips. 

“What was that for?” he mumbled, as she ran her hand across his chest.

“I just love you is all.”

A small smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I love you too,” he replied, and brushed back a strip of hair from her face and leaned in for another kiss and then left a trail of kisses across her cheek and down her neck before coming back up towards her ear and speaking softly. “You know we still have some time before dinner and it’s not like we have to worry about you getting pregnant…”

Her body lit up with goosebumps from where his soft breath met her skin, an involuntary shudder running down her spine. “Incorrigible!” she teased, even as she stood up from the couch and dragged him along behind her towards their bedroom.

* * *

“Do you think that Anthony finally proposed? It seemed like things were touch and go last night,” Maria asked, hovering from somewhere behind Howard’s shoulder, probably the kitchen as she was finishing up cooking in the kitchen, as he scanned through the New York Times. While he appreciated the internet he had more than had his fill and preferred to get his news via the more traditional medium. Unfortunately, reading the newspaper had never been enough to deter his wife’s queries. 

“That was the intention last night,” he offered. 

“Well, you talked to him last and now he’s wanting to discuss something important with us. You have been pretty tight lipped since last night, so I know you know more than you’re letting on,” she said coming around the arm chair and planting herself directly across from him, right in his eye line. She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

In the early days of their marriage it might have made him crack, but Howard was a pro at this by now. Besides it wasn’t like he actually knew the answer to her question. He could certainly speculate with his wife further to make her happy but he was more concerned about keeping another certain secret safe. The one involving a new generation of Stark’s. Maria would lose her mind when she found out but that was for Tony and Pepper to share, not him. 

“I encouraged him into that direction but that wasn’t what we talked about most. A lot of it was about the incident with Spiderman.”

Another secret he had to withhold. Tony hadn’t necessarily asked him to do so but it didn’t take a genius to understand that the less people that knew about Peter the better. 

“You have no idea what he wants to talk to us about?”

“Not a glimmer.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed in disbelief anyways. “I will find out what you know.”

“I never had any doubts,” he teased.

The elevator dinged then, signaling the arrival of Tony and Pepper. Maria’s attention was instantly upon the couple as they stepped out with bright smiles on their faces and their hands entwined. Maria glanced back towards Howard expectantly and he carefully folded the newspaper and tossed it onto the end table.

They all greeted one another with a smile and a hug, and though Howard knew that Maria was practically bursting with the need to have her questions answered, she politely led everyone to the dining area and began setting out food. Pepper offered to help her but the second she reached for the heavy tray of food, Howard swooped in and took it off her hands. She furrowed her brow but otherwise said nothing and he wondered if he was being too obvious, but he hadn’t let Maria do any of the heavy lifting when she’d been pregnant with Tony either. 

Once everything was in place and polite conversation carefully dispensed, it didn’t take too long for Maria’s resolve to crumble. 

“Anything  _ new _ and  _ exciting  _ going on with you two?” she asked, as if the entire room didn’t know exactly what she was getting at.

Still. Tony was his father’s son. 

“What do you mean, Mom?” he asked clueless, in between bites of his salad.

“Is there anything you need to tell us? I know yesterday was long for you and a lot happened. Just making sure everything is fine.”

“Everything is great,” he simply answered.

“Tony…” Pepper cautioned with a smile beside him, nudging his ribs gently. 

“What?” he asked with all the innocence that he could muster. 

Maria was practically vibrating out of her seat at this point and Howard hid a grin knowing he had to go in for the assist. “Don’t be cruel.”

“It’s so much fun though,” he replied, stabbing at a tomato and then turning towards his mother. Maria couldn’t see it but with his free hand, Tony grasped Pepper’s underneath the table. “We were going to wait until after dinner buuuuut…” he dragged the word out, loving to see his mother bubbling in excitement, “she said yes.” 

Maria let out a happy cry and was out of her seat and practically in Pepper’s lap hugging her before the words had left Tony’s mouth. “I am so happy for you two, and I’m sorry to pry but the suspense has been killing me since Howard told me Anthony’s plans and then everything that happened in between. I just want you to know that I couldn’t have found a better match for my son in a million years.”

“If you think you love her now, just wait,” Tony said, his eyes meeting Pepper’s and she nodded once with a smile. Tony wiped his face with a napkin and reached into his jacket pocket producing a small square of paper. “Surprise.”

Howard watched as his wife's face fan the gamut of emotions from confusion to shock then understanding and overwhelming joy. She turned back towards him then, eyes full of tears. 

“Oh, Howard,” she whispered, and held up the sonogram.

He of course had already known about the baby, but he stood up and joined his wife. Tony and Pepper had their full attention upon the couple watching their reactions and Howard had to admit that knowing about the baby and seeing the baby were two completely different things. They hadn’t really had anything like this when Maria had been pregnant and though he knew of them and their purpose, he had only ever seen one other that Peggy had shown him when Sharon had been in-utero. Even then the technology was new and the pictures fuzzy, barely visible masses. This however was very clearly defined. A round head, a body, the tiny beginnings of hands and feet. It was a real person. His grandchild. 

He never could have imagined when he exited that cryo chamber that he would have gotten a second chance with his son, let alone that he would be here to see the next generation. 

The tears were openly flowing from Maria by this time and she reached out and pulled Tony and Pepper both into her arms for a hug. Not knowing what exactly to do in this instance, Howard placed his hand on Tony’s shoulder and the younger man smiled at him over his mother’s shoulder and opened his arm up to him to include him in the hug.

Yes, he never would have imagined in a million lifetimes, to be so easily included. He was a difficult man, a straight up asshole depending who you asked, but this fragile family unit had taken a chance and torn down the old walls and rebuilt them to include him within once more. It was more than he deserved and he would never squander another second. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only news that Tony and Pepper brought with them that evening.

* * *

Tony hated to spoil a good time, he really did. Especially after his day had been mostly salvaged, a few hours where he wasn’t constantly worrying about what Ross was planning, what his move was, how it was going to affect his growing family. They were working against the clock though and as exciting as it was to indulge in his parent’s obvious joy for him and Pepper, there was work to be done. 

As soon as dinner was finished and his mother completely exhausted in her excitement of becoming a grandmother, they settled down into the living room and got serious. His parents picked up immediately in the shift of tone, straightening up in their seats and listening carefully. 

Pepper and Tony took their time explaining the situation, who Ross was, what he wanted, the lengths that he would go to if needed. 

“As you can see, the situation is dire. We want to get ahead of whatever narrative that Ross could be planning, but in order to do that we are going to need to know everything that you remember about your time in captivity,” Pepper concluded, in full business mode though her eyes held warmth and empathy for each of them when she looked into their eyes. 

This was Pepper Potts, CEO. 

Tony could easily believe that everything would be okay when Pepper was like this. Pepper always got what she wanted in the boardroom and she turned the entirety of that energy into protecting their family as well. It was beautiful to watch. 

“I know this is a lot. There’s been a lot going on this evening, good and bad, but we have to be prepared. What did they make you do?” Tony asked, looking his father in the eye.

Howard’s brow had furrowed deeply with each piece of information they provided, a storm raging behind his eyes. 

“Trust me when I say that I know how shitty this is to have to sort through that time. Of everyone, I understand the most, but every bit of information could be helpful,” Tony continued when his father didn’t immediately answer.

“You know most of it already. They wanted me to tweak the serum.” Howard didn’t meet his eyes, keeping them fixated at a point on the floor as he fiddled with his shirt sleeve.

“And did it work?”

“You saw them,” Howard reminded him of the dead soldiers in their cryo units and Tony nodded.

“What else?”

“Weapons,” Maria spoke up. “They wanted him to build new weapons, armor. Outfit all of Hydra.”

“Did you do it?” Tony asked.

Howard stood up from his seat and headed for the kitchen without a word. Maria started to follow but Tony waved her off and went after him. 

The floor, like all of the others, was an open concept plan so his mother and Pepper still were able to track his movements as he went after his father. He was pulling down a glass and opening a decanter of whiskey when Tony stood beside him. 

“Want one?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Howard pulled down another glass and dropped a couple ice cubes in and filled them up. He slid one to Tony and took a large drink from his own, his eyes continuing to only stare in front of him. 

Tony picked up his glass and swirled the amber liquid around and took a sip. “You know there’s no shame in anything that you did while you were held captive. I just need to know what happened so I can try and protect you.”

“You shouldn’t have to protect me, Tony.”

“I will anyways.”

Howard shook his head. “I don’t deserve it. I made them everything that they wanted Tony. Do you know how it feels admitting that to you, knowing what I do about what you went through in Afghanistan?”

“And if it weren’t for Yinsen I would have folded too. There’s no award for who endures captivity best. So, you made them weapons? I remember you mentioning this before. What kind?”

Howard groaned and took another drink. “Guns. Armor. Some other odds and ends. Nothing too high tech. Enough for them to be distributed to different bases.”

“He didn’t give them exactly what they wanted,” Maria called from behind them, leaning across the counter. “They threatened me and you. So he made them, but they were no good to anyone. The guns would jam and explode. The armor was flashy but useless. We did what we had to do to survive but Karpov never got exactly what he wanted. We were biding our time until we could escape.”

“Then you have nothing to be ashamed of. You were two captives who were undermining a dangerous terrorist group. This is definitely a scenario that we can spin positively,” Pepper offered as she came to stand beside Maria. 

“It doesn’t change the fact that I never should have put us in this position to begin with. You don’t need the stress, either of you, especially now,” he glanced to Pepper.

“Please, Pepper thrives on stress. If she didn’t she would have never stuck around this long, would you, honey?” Tony asked, keeping his tone light so his father would know that he didn’t blame him for any of this. Ross was just an asshole that he had been on a collision course with since he shut down the weapons division. 

“I always have liked a challenge,” she assured them. 

“Was there anything else? Any run-ins or incidents?” 

Howard shook his head. “Just demand for product.” 

“Well, like Pep said, we can work with that. Tomorrow I’ll make a statement about what happened, we kept it quiet until we could make sure that you guys were safe and give you time to adjust before we told the public. If everyone could accept Cap so easily, then I don’t see why the same can’t be done for you,” Tony said, holding his hand out. 

There had been a few naysayers when Cap had his big reintroduction on the world stage but on the heels of the Chitauri invasion they were easily drowned out. They didn’t have any aliens to piggyback off of this time but for better or worse his parents had already been well liked public figures. Their funeral had been on a scale of a dead president and Tony had done his part the last eight years to clean up any blemishes to the Stark name. As long as they could get the court of public opinion on their side it would make all the difference. 

“I hope you’re right son,” Howard said, his gaze lingering on the ultrasound photo proudly displayed on their fridge as he finished the rest of his drink. 

* * *

The day of the press conference the skies over New York were cold and gray, autumn finally settling into the city. A light rain drizzled against the windows of Stark Tower off and on all morning as Tony worked in the lab to put the finishing touches on what he needed for the day. 

He held up the small circular device between his fingers and looked it over. It was a redesign of an old model, similar to the hacking device he had used to get Jarvis access to all the Shield files that first day on the helicarrier years ago. Only this one had been upgraded. 

“You sure that’s going to work?” Rhodey asked, the concern written all over his face. 

Tony never even flinched. Just smiled and clasped the device in the palm of his hand. “Of course I am, platypus.”

“I’m still worried.”

Tony turned to face him. “You wouldn’t be Rhodey if you weren’t.”

“I was hoping that we would have figured something else out by now.”

“You know as well as I do that sometimes you have to lose a few pawns to get to the King. Moves and countermoves, remember?”

“You’re not pawns though Tony. You’re my family what if…”

“Hey, hey,” Tony cut him off holding up his hand. “If something bad were to happen, I trust you to have my back to get me out of there, okay? You’ve already proven that you won’t give up on me when you scoured a desert for three months alright? We do this together.”

Rhodey crossed his arms and made his way across the lab, his braces whirring quietly as he went. “Okay, what about Toomes. Do you think that he’s going to take the bait?”

“Are you kidding?” Tony asked, as he fidgeted with another device on his workbench. “It’ll be like Christmas morning for him. There’s no way he can afford to ignore it. Here try this out, let me know if it works,” he said and tossed Rhodey a small earpiece and then went to the opposite end of the lab. 

Tony placed the device under a table and whispered, “Can you hear me?”

If this device failed now, Tony wasn’t sure what he’d do, but he didn’t worry for long before his friend responded, his voice carrying across the room. 

“Loud and clear, Tones!”

“Perfect. Fri, you interfaced with this frequency?”

“Online and ready, Boss.”

“Damn, I’m good,” he mumbled to himself and jumped when Rhodey shouted back at him.

“Not that good!”

Tony laughed and retracted the device. “Look I know you’re jealous and all, and that’s why I got you a little present,” he said coming back towards his friend. Only when he was in front of him and could look him in the eye did he speak again. “This is a big one and you don’t need to feel obligated to use it so soon if at all, but if things start going south...ask Friday to open 21-A.”

“21-A?” Rhodey parroted.

Tony looked over his friend and smiled. Rhodey had made so much progress with his therapy over the last few months. He sometimes wondered if maybe he was asking too much of him or pushing too hard, but that was what they did. They took turns leaning on each other and pushing the other when they needed it. While his brain told him to proceed with caution his heart knew that this would be what Rhodey needed when everything went bottom’s up, and he knew it would. He could feel it in his bones, each tick of the clock towards the press conference like the countdown on a bomb he couldn’t diffuse.

“Boss, it’s 4:00pm,” Friday reminded him and he and Rhodey both startled, looking up at Friday's sensors.

The conference was in half an hour. 

“You sure you have everything you need?”

“You sure you know what has to be done?”

“I do and it doesn’t make it any easier.”

Tony nodded. “T’Challa and the others are in the know. The King can get the word out to our UN contact when we have enough evidence. Do NOT intervene until we have everything we need.”

“You just watch your six,” Rhodey said and brought him in for a hug.

“Why bother when I have you to do that for me?”

* * *

It didn’t hit him until he was standing in the elevator with Pepper, his parents and Happy, in a fresh Tom Ford suit, his red and gold Iron Man cuff links shining against the fluorescent lights, what was about to happen. His parents were dressed in their own best clothing, his father looking every inch as intimidating as the man that Tony remembered from childhood, strong and confidant. 

His stomach dropped with each floor closer they came to the press room on the main floor. 

Ross wasn’t going to play fair. This was a fact. He never had. All Tony could hope was that he had anticipated every outcome properly and prepared his best for what was to come. He didn’t want to think of the cost if he miscalculated. The damage it would do to him, his family, his business, a boy from Queens and even the Avengers to some lesser extent.

Pepper sensing his dark thoughts grabbed his hand and squeezed it in hers. “Everything is going to be alright,” she spoke confidently. 

He tried to match her enthusiasm but the smile felt fake, even as far as his press smiles went. He rubbed his thumb over her hand, her fingers soft yet so strong in his hold.

“Shit, wait,” he said, his mind running circles as he realized he had forgotten one very important thing over the course of the last couple days. 

The other occupants of the elevator all looked to him in concern or confusion but he only had eyes for Happy.

“Hey, Hap, you still got that ring?” he asked hopefully, and from the corner of his eye he noticed Pepper’s face morph from concern to adoration. 

This spurred Happy into action, standing up straight from where he had been leaning against the handrail. His hands flew around to all of his pockets, patting them down. “Are you kidding? I’ve been carrying this around for you since 2008,” he said, finally coming up with the correct pocket and presenting the engagement ring in his hand in dramatic fashion. 

Tony plucked the ring from Happy’s hand and turned to his fiancee. “I know I’ve already asked you once but now we can really make it official. Pepper Potts...will you marry me?” he asked, presenting the ring to her.

“You idiot, of course I will.”

Pepper held out her left hand to him and he slid the ring home onto her finger. 

“A perfect fit,” he said quietly.

“Since 2008 though?”

“I may have wanted this for a very long time.”

“You always have been a futurist,” she said and tipped her head down a little bit (she was in those damn power heels again) and gave him a sweet kiss. 

The elevator dinged it’s arrival and Howard cleared his throat a little too, reminding them that there were other people on the elevator as well. They broke apart unashamed, and all the anxiety Tony had pushed away in the last few moments came rushing back as Happy held open the doors. 

“Showtime,” he said and stepped out first, Pepper and his parents following behind him. 

* * *

“Now I know you hate the cards, Tony, but this is one of those times where we don’t exactly have a choice. I’ve sectioned them into bullet points so you can elaborate however much is needed but don’t go off on a rambling tangent either. They need the clear and concise facts,” Pepper called after him as they approached the side entrance of the staged area, the murmur from the gathered reporter’s growing in intensity as the clock ticked onward.

“Stick to the cards I’ve got it.”

“Do you really?” she asked disbelievingly.

“You know me.”

“That’s why I’m making sure. After the speech we can bring you both out,” she continued, turning her attention to Howard and Maria. “Then we’ll take some questions. Tony can field most of them but it will look good if you can speak for yourself too.”

“This isn’t their first rodeo, Pep.”

“I appreciate it all the same,” his mother was quick to say and nudged his side, “Where are your manners, anyways? You should be happy she is so prepared.”

“I am. I’ll just be happier the sooner we can get this over with.”

A ding sounded from Tony’s pocket and Pepper sighed. “Please make sure your phone is silenced before you go out there.”

“Yeah, yeah, probably just my conference reminder” he said, and pulled his phone out of his jacket to make sure it wasn’t Rhodey trying to reach him. He was still eighty plus levels above them, monitoring the situation from Tony’s lab. 

Before he could open up his phone though there was another ding...and another...and another. The buzzes and custom tones of over a dozen phones could be heard, the chattering of reporter’s voices quieting as everyone began checking their phones.

Tony furrowed his brow as the cold feeling of dread came crashing down on his chest. 

“What is it?” Pepper murmured and scooted closer to his phone to see. Howard and Maria moved closer too.

It was an emergency alert, like one would get if there was an AMBER alert, automatically broadcasted to every phone in the given area. Only this was not for any missing endangered person. Instead Tony was faced with his mother and father’s features, taken from an old photo pre accident. 

_ This notification is to serve as an alert for the Manhattan area of the suspected whereabouts of terrorist affiliates, Howard Anthony Walter Stark and Maria Collins Carbonell Stark. Please do not approach them if you see them. Get somewhere safe and call 911.  _

“What the fuck…” Howard muttered under his breath, looking from the phone to Tony.

“Ross,” Tony said, darkly.

“What do we do?” Maria asked.

Pepper’s lips were drawn in a tight line as she looked at the couple and back to Tony. “Get out there. This still doesn’t mean anything. Ross got the jump but we have the narrative.”

She all but pushed Tony to the stage as the murmurings from the reporters escalated in volume again, discussing the alert and the reason for this conference.

Tony started to go up the stairs, then stopped and turned back to Pepper. “Whatever happens after this, just trust me, okay?”

“I don’t like the sound of that--”

He cut her off with a kiss that stole her breath away. “Trust me,” he pulled away leaving her dazed and pushed aside the weight that had settled on his chest, calling upon everything in him to pull up his press persona. 

The minute that he hit the stage the reporters rushed the stage clamoring over one another, shouting out questions as he made his way behind the podium.

_ Why are we here? _

_ What is this alert about Howard and Maria Stark?  _

_ Are they alive? _

_ Are they terrorists? _

Only one reporter held back, still seated in the front row, studying the stage. Tony nodded his head to Christine Everhart and she nodded back respectfully.

“If we could all sit back down I’d be more than happy to tell everyone why they’re here.”

The reporters still shouted over each other but began to disperse back into their seats, but only after Tony made it clear just how serious he was. Once the frenzy was calmed he took a deep breath, and looked to the cards in his hands. 

“I guess I won’t be needing these after all,” he said, and there were scattered murmurs of laughter. He hadn’t completely lost control yet, he just had to redirect their attention to his side. “So, given the events of the past few moments I am sure you can begin to hedge why you have all been brought here today. Perhaps, at this rate it would be better to just show you,” he said and looked out to his parents at the stage entrance and stretched out his hand to beckon them to him. 

The reporters let out a collective gasp as the unmistakable figure of Howard Stark climbed the stage, holding his wife’s hand in his own as they approached the podium and stood by Tony’s side. Almost immediately the questions started again and Tony had to take another moment to calm the tides.

“As you can see, something miraculous happened to me a few months ago. When you step out of this room today you are going to be assaulted with outrageous claims and stories about what someone  _ thinks  _ happened to my parents on December 16th, 1991, but I am here to tell you the truth. My family was attacked that night by a terrorist group we are all familiar with, called Hydra. They were kidnapped and transported to a remote location in the mountains of Siberia and forced to do whatever they had to to survive and survive they did, through a great many trials. There are others who would like to paint my family not as victims but allies to the enemy, but that is simply not true and we will prove---”

Before Tony could finish his speech there was a loud disturbance from the press entrance of the room. Everyone turned in their seats, gasping and crying out as a group of armed JSOC soldiers burst through the door, surrounding the perimeter and keeping their weapons trained on the stage. 

As the last soldier entered, the clicking of heavy dress shoes echoed across the floor and Thaddeus Ross in full military regalia stepped through the entrance looking like the cat that had caught the canary.

“Anthony Edward Stark, by the authority invested in me by the President of the United States, I am placing you under arrest,” his deep voice echoed out over the room, a voice that was used to giving orders out over the chaos of a battlefield.

“For what crime?” a nameless reporter called out.

Ross’ grin grew more crooked if that was possible. 

“Treason.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hand wavy politics, hand wavy legalities. 
> 
> EDIT: AHEM. My dumbass originally posted this chapter stating that it was Everett Ross that entered the press room but it was most definitely Thaddeus. Lol I have edited it to reflect this correction but just in case there was anymore confusion. Good catch you guys! It was nearly 3am when I posted and I completely botched it. Two entirely diff characters 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️ lmao
> 
> Did I just leave you on yet another cliffhanger? I did. I have no regrets. <3 Love all you guys and gals and non binary pals. <3


	29. The Raft

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! Sorry as always for the delay. In case you didn't see before, I had taken a week off while my friend visited me and then I took last Monday off due to my kids starting school and because last Monday was my 31st birthday. :D  
> But I am back now. I know I said this would probably be ending at Chapter 30 but yeeeeeah, that's going to be extended an additional chapter or two. lol So rejoice if that makes you happy. lol
> 
> Now to address something serious. Obviously, the abrupt passing of Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) over the weekend is absolutely heartbreaking and painful. I had always planned in the next few chapters for T'Challa to play an intricate role and I still intend to do so. I just wanted to give you notice of this upfront so if won't be so jarring. Chadwick was such an amazing and talented individual, his loss is a tough one. #ChadwickForever
> 
> With that said, thank you as always for the love and support. Be kind to each other. You never know what someone is going through. Please leave me a kudos or comment below if you enjoy this long awaited chapter. <3

“Treason? Boy, you really are fighting for those headlines. Good luck making that one stick,” Tony said as Ross watched over one of his operatives as they held his hands behind his back and cuffed him. The tightening of the cuffs against his skin reminded him of that one time back around 1997 or 1998 when he had been arrested for public intoxication and the police officer had been a little too enthusiastic in his arrest, leaving bruises on his wrists when all was said and done. Definitely not a position he liked to find himself in unless it was Pepper holding the keys to his release. Secretary Ross was absolutely not his ideal partner in this crime. 

The cameras never stopped flashing as the clamoring reporters continued to throw questions out to Tony or Pepper and his parents, some even to Secretary Ross. It didn’t matter whether he attempted to answer them, the mic was dead, shut off upon the Secretary’s dramatic entrance. For now he was content to do some fishing to find out exactly what was up Ross’ sleeve. 

One thing remained true however. Tony Stark had promised a show this evening and wryly he thought, he had delivered exponentially on that promise. 

“Maybe it won’t, but it got their attention didn’t it, boy-o? It’s more than enough to earn you a family trip to the Raft though,” he said with a smug grin, the JSOC guys moving to arrest Howard and Maria as well, even as Pepper yelled and argued with them in the background about the couple’s rights and warrants.

Ross was going to pay dearly for this, he thought as he observed his parents roughly being taken into custody as if they were some common thugs. Pepper caught his eye over his father’s shoulder as he regrettably complied with the soldier, her eyes were wild and she was clearly wondering if his cryptic message to her before he got on stage had included being arrested in front of every respectable news reporter in New York. He had to admit that he hadn’t expected the timing, he thought for sure he’d make it to at least the end of the press conference. None of that mattered now though. All that mattered was exposing the bastard. 

“So, you just admitted you have nothing then?” he questioned, turning his head to refocus his attention on the elder man.

“Did I say that?” Ross leaned in close enough for Tony to feel the man's breath against his collar, the residual smell of stale cigars clinging to his breath and to the fibers of his uniform, reminding him once again of Obadiah. “You should have honored our little agreement,” the older man spoke softly and shrugged. 

“You’re actually enjoying this aren’t you?”

“And why shouldn’t I? I have been waiting for you to slip up for years, Stark. This is like Christmas coming early,” he said and snapped his fingers at his men to indicate that they could be moved now. 

His parents were moved forward first as the reporters frenzy of questions and pictures intensified. They hadn’t spoken a single word yet, their voices denied by Ross’ strategic arrival, and though they had been put through the wringer already they handled it with dignity and grace, their features schooled and proud, heads up as they were led away.

Ross slapped his hand across Tony’s back, the force pushing him forward a step to lead him away but Pepper blocked them,

“Where are you taking them?” she demanded, standing tall in the face of Ross and his men, every inch the terrifying CEO. 

Tony gave her a soft, apologetic smile for putting her through all this. Pepper Potts really was a saint and he hoped that she knew just how much he loved and admired her for that. Any normal person would have bailed on him years ago, but here she stood, ready to take on the US military in her best suit and heels. Her wrath was certainly more terrifying than anything Ross planned to do to him. 

“Temporary holding cell,” Ross said, starting to maneuver around her, but she stepped in front of them again. 

“ _ Where _ ?” she reiterated, undeterred by Ross’ efforts to get by, even as he motioned for a couple men to surround her.

“The Raft. Now do I have to have you escorted to a holding cell as well, or are you going to let us pass?”

Pepper glanced over at the two beefy soldiers at her side and for a moment Tony thought that she actually might try to take them. If she had a canister of pepper spray hidden on her person somewhere he had no doubts she’s be able to take on the entire room, but that was not part of the plan and he couldn’t risk her doing something stupid like he would do in her place.

“Pep,” he called gently, “everything will be alright.” He looked her in the eyes imploringly, needing her to trust in him, to keep her cool. He didn’t know what he’d do if Ross tried to arrest her too. Well. He did know. And it was nothing good. 

A steady arm came up to wrap around Pepper’s shoulder as Happy muscled his way through the group. His face was grim and his lips pursed tightly together. Pepper spared him half a glance before breaking his hold stepping forward to press her lips against Tony’s cheek. 

“You better know what you’re doing,” she whispered and then stepped back beside Happy, making room so that Ross and his men could pass with her soon to be husband. 

“Take her to Rhodey, Hap,” he called over his shoulder as he was once more pushed forward. Did these flunkies really think that they scared him? He could have a suit here in 30 seconds and crush them all without a second thought if he were so inclined. 

Happy nodded grimly to his request though and Tony kept turning back to make sure that they were still there, that no one would touch them, even as the crowd of reporters converged on their spot. Happy would keep Pepper safe though and get her to Rhodey and Rhodey would be able to explain the plan to her. She would see. He had no other choice. 

“I love you!” he called out, just before he was pushed out the door and lost all visual contact with her, the door slamming shut with finality. 

Ross continued to have his men push back the reporters as they led Tony to a slew of armored vehicles parked in front of the tower. He was shoved not so gently inside the back of the truck, his head bumping against the reinforced truck wall.

“Easy there, GI Joe, I’m not resisting,” he snarked and settled beside his father. His mother was seated directly across from Howard, her face turned away from the madness outside. Tony felt a pang of guilt for his mother being subjected to this farce. She was always such a proper and well mannered woman. He could only imagine the embarrassment that she was probably feeling right now, even if none of this was her fault at all. 

GI Joe flopped in the seat in front of Tony as the door was slammed behind him, cutting them all off from the outside world. He stared at Tony with a hardened gaze that would give even Steve’s constipated battle faces a run for their money and if Tony had to guess he was probably named Butch or Biff or something equally ridiculous as that. 

“I see we are getting the VIP accommodations today,” Tony said rolling his eyes, because he was never good with silence.

GI Joe didn’t make any kind of acknowledgement that he had spoken, just continued staring with dead, emotionless eyes.

“Tough crowd,” he mumbled and relaxed back against the seat as best he could. 

“All part of the plan, son?” Howard leaned over and nudged his shoulder the best he could while handcuffed. Tony thought he would have been worried but Howard’s voice was calm and steady, wry even, as he poked a little fun at him.

“Mostly,” he shrugged back.

“We trust you,” Maria finally spoke up, turning to face them both. Howard nodded in agreement with his wife and Tony felt something warm burst in his chest. 

This was...this was nice. 

He just hoped he wouldn’t let them all down. 

* * *

Pepper watched with dread as the door slammed shut and Tony along with it, a sense of finality crackling in the air. She was mad. No, she was absolutely pissed off and doing her best to pretend otherwise. She didn’t know what Tony had planned earlier when he told her to trust him but somehow she didn’t think that even  _ he _ had been prepared to be arrested by Ross and his JSOC goons in front of all the media. Or maybe he had? Maybe that was the real reason that he hadn’t put up a fight when she mentioned organizing one? And was extremely helpful in the planning process…but why?

Maybe he wanted an arrest to be public? To hold Ross accountable? 

Why did he have to be so goddamn cryptic all the time? Would it kill him to let her in on his plans before they blew up in everyone’s faces?

“Come on, Pepper, let's get you out of here,” Happy said, patting her shoulder reassuringly, his large arm still draped comfortingly across her shoulders. 

She finally drug her eyes away from the door and let Happy start to steer her away from the stage when someone started clapping loudly, the echo reverberating around the now empty room. It startled her for a moment, she thought that all the reporters had funneled outside chasing their story. Happy clearly thought the same, throwing himself in front of her and reaching for his weapon until Pepper raised a hand to stop him, her eyes zeroing in on their other occupant. They were in no danger, physically at least.

“Well, gotta say, that was not what I was expecting,” Christine Everhart spoke from her seat in the first row.

“It’s okay, Happy,” Pepper said quietly and stepped around him, coming closer to the woman in question. “Tony does like to subvert expectations.” 

Pepper put her hands on her hips and regarded the reporter with a questioning eye. She looked pretty much the same from the last time she saw her, although her hair was maybe a little shorter. It had been after the disaster of the Stark Expo though when they reunited for the “Women in Power” piece. She’d actually done a good job and a fragile peace had been established between them, Christine often publishing flattering articles for Pepper and SI, and even for Tony after the Ultron fiasco. 

She had been one of the only members of the press to give Tony a fair shake, her articles launching into the pressures of protecting society and how Tony deserved the benefit of the doubt. Her words had been kind when she would have been completely justified in the eyes of the media and the public to rip him to shreds if she’d wanted. Pepper may have even developed respect for her after that. It was the reason she’d been invited to the conference after all.

From the looks of her now, even through the chaos of the last twenty minutes, she hadn’t moved from her seat at all to mob Tony or The Starks. She hadn’t even shouted any snarky questions. Pepper wondered what her game was. 

“Even so,” Christine responded, finally standing up and smoothing out her skirt, “I get the feeling that stunt wasn’t a part of the plan.”

A small smirk crossed Pepper’s lips. “Maybe.”

Christine smiled back kindly and began gathering her things. “Good luck to you all, then. I really am rooting for you guys.”

“Thanks.” Pepper scrunched her face up and she knew that Christine was waiting to see if she would call her bluff, but friendly terms or not, she wasn’t sure if it would be safe to speak to the press just yet, now that a new variable had been thrown in the mix. She needed to consult with the Stark legal team and see what Rhodey knew about what Tony had gotten himself into. 

She started to turn away from her and walk away but then stopped in her tracks. 

Fuck it. 

It certainly couldn’t hurt their cause at this point. Anything that could be done to get Tony and his family seen in a favorable light could only help in the end, and boy did Christine hate a bully. She could easily help diminish Ross’ credibility. 

Pepper turned back around and walked back to the edge of the stage. 

“Hey, Everhart,” she called out to the now retreating reporter. Christine stopped and turned back around. “How would you like to land the story of the year?”

Christine raised her eyebrows. “On the record or off?”

“On, of course.”

Christine nodded and stepped forward a few more feet, laying her jacket over one of the vacant chairs. “Why me?” she finally asked, her gaze turning critical.

“Why not you?” Pepper shrugged. Christine continued to regard her with her face pulled tight and Pepper sighed. “Because I know you actually care.”

And Pepper did know that, Had slowly learned that over the years. First impressions notwithstanding, Christine cared in her own way about Tony, but more so in getting the truth out into the open, and that was the most important factor of all. 

Christine smiled and fished into her bag and pulled out her pen and paper and a tape recorder. “What do you have for me Potts?”

* * *

The helicopter ride to the Raft was every bit as choppy and nauseating as Tony remembered from his last visit, the gray and rainy New York skies only getting worse the further out to sea they went. If he had been in his Stark Industries helicopter everything would be fine with the anti-turbulence system it was equipped with...this military grade chopper, not so much. It rattled, bumped, and jerked around in the air like they were evading enemies and flying into a hot LZ, each twist and turn sending his stomach churning with it, and he was someone accustomed to flying at MACH speeds in his suit. It was clear that comfort was, not surprisingly, very low on Ross’ priority list when it came to his prisoners. They could have at least uncuffed him so he could grab a barf bag if needed. 

“What’s the matter, Stark? You look a little green,” Ross shouted out over the chopper engines as they began their brief dissent into the choppy waters and the Raft’s landing zone.

When they had transferred from the armored vehicle to the helicopter Ross had taken it upon himself to sit in Tony’s direct eyeline, trying his very best to cut an intimidating form as he smugly grinned the whole ride over. Tony wasn’t scared of him though. Every inch closer to the Raft was an inch closer to taking this asshole down for good.

Tony waited until the engine had been shut off, the rotation of the blades slowly whirring down before he finally answered the question.

“I think your chopper needs some rotor upgrades. This thing flies like shit. That may also be GI Joe’s navigational skills though,” he shrugged. The beefy soldier from the armored vehicle was actually a pilot. Go figure. 

Ross exited the chopper first and Tony got a glimpse of the Raft security that was waiting to take them all into custody. The JSOC men removed his parents first and then Biff, the GI Joe, personally saw to Tony’s own rough exit.

Ross smiled and held out his arms. “Keep talking smartass. You’re in my territory now and this time you’re  _ not _ a guest.”

“No red carpet then?”

Tony didn’t know why he loved to antagonize so much. It was something he could trace back to being a kid in the garage with his father. They were both quick witted individuals and when on good terms they’d often pick at each other with their little barbs, the barbs becoming sharper and harder, a little more resentful the more distant they became. 

Tony always had to have the last word in everything though, and the older he became, the more that was ingrained into his body. The last word with the board, with reporters, with women. Sometimes he would go too far and his mouth would get him into hot water, say like that time he gave his address to a terrorist. Normally, though there was some kind of indication when he was pushing too far.

Ross came with none. 

One minute he was staring the man down and the next good ole Biff had caught him square in the jaw with a sucker punch that sent him scrambling to remain on his feet, his balance displaced by his cuffed hands. He heard his parents both let out a shout after the initial hit as he struggled to right himself. Biff pulled him back by the chain on the handcuffs, the cuffs seeming to squeeze impossibly tighter against his wrists.

_ Fuck, that asshole sure packed a wallop.  _

He opened and closed his mouth tentatively, checking to see if anything had been broken or dislocated but everything seemed fine, all of his teeth even still in place. It was definitely going to bruise though. 

“Are you beginning to understand my point here Stark?” Ross questioned, stepping up to him, daring him to defy him again. 

Tony was never one to run from a dare though.

“Go ahead, Ross, mark me up. See how well that plays to the public when they realize what you’re doing in this hell hole.”

The anticipation didn’t make the hit to the mouth any easier to take and Ross’ flunky took another shot at his face, this time connecting with his mouth and he was definitely getting the distinct taste of copper on his tongue from where his lip was now surely split open. He had managed to stay on his feet though, the impact only making him take a haphazard step back to steady himself, and he felt proud of that small feat given the position he was in.

“You still don’t understand, do you?” Ross spoke again, voice dangerously low. “No one is going to see you like this, no one is going to be coming for you. As far as you’re concerned, I am God and you’re just an ant beneath my boot, Stark.”

Ross made to step forward again into Tony’s space but Howard jerked in front of him at the last second, his body blocking Ross’ advances.

“You or your goons put a hand on my son one more time I’ll--”

“You’ll what?” Ross cut Howard off. “You hold no power here, Howard Stark, and you hold no power out there. You’re a traitor to this country, working with the enemy. How far back does that Hydra association go, big man? Back to the Manhattan Project?”

Howard never even flinched, he stood before Ross as strong and proud as he ever had, that natural charisma and demand for attention coming off of him in waves. His voice remained hard.

“Don’t touch him.”

The men stared each other down for several moments that seemed to stretch on for hours, until miraculously Tony watched in awe as Ross backed off, taking several steps back from Howard and placing his hands in his pockets.

“You’re right Howie. We don’t want to get him marred before the main event.” Ross took a calming breath and straightened his uniform and awards. Howard had seemed to get to him, no matter how little, and Tony was sure to take note of it as he spit out some excess blood from his mouth. Ross’ face wrinkled in disgust as he turned back to his watchdog. “Lieutenant Berenger, please escort these traitors to intake and get them situated for their extended stay with us. We’ll finish this discussion a little later, yes?”

Ross turned on his heel with military precision and started walking away, a section of Raft security peeling away with him as he did while the remaining three men moved forward to escort them along with the Lieutenant. 

“Don't I get a phone call?” Tony called out to Ross’ retreating back and the man’s laughter echoed throughout the launchpad. 

“No, that’s not the way this works, Stark. We’ll talk later.” Ross smiled back at him before disappearing through one of the doors.

“Don’t antagonize him, Anthony,” his mother chided him quietly, as she filed in alongside him as they were marched to their next destination. 

“Where’s the fun in that?”

It wasn’t often that his mother fixed him with a death glare, and certainly not since his teenage years, but she turned one on him now full force and he felt like a child again, melting under her piercing gaze. More than that he was able to get a good luck into her eyes and see the fear that lurked behind them. She was scared. Whatever bravado she had mustered in the trucks and the helicopter had melted away at the actions of Ross’ goons and for that Tony did begin to feel a pang of regret for his cavalierness. He had to keep reminding himself that he was still on a team, even if that wasn’t currently the Avengers. He needed to protect his parents and he wouldn’t be able to do that if he kept letting his mouth runoff unchecked. 

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly and nudged her gently with his side. 

“Please be careful.”

“Always,” he smiled. 

The first room that they were brought to was a familiar place and ultimately the set up for the first phase of his plan. It was the main security and control room, beyond which he knew would come the holding cells that his fellow Avengers had been placed in months ago when he came seeking information for Steve and Barnes whereabouts. His eyes flickered to the video feeds, half expecting to see Wanda on one of them tucked into that horrible straight jacket and collar, but there was nothing to be seen.

While the guards busied themselves punching in access codes to take them to the next part of the prison ship, Tony casually rubbed one of his hands up against his watch, fumbling slightly to find the correct button combination before pushing the two buttons together simultaneously. Hidden by the long cut of his suit, a small bug like bot broke away from the face of his watch, coming to life and fluttering away discreetly down his sleeve and onto the nearest wall, casually observing its settings.

Tony had gotten the idea for recon bots when he had made Peter’s suit. They were small, untraceable and perfect to use in a pinch if he didn’t have his own suit. This particular bot however had received an upgraded connection to Friday who was able to control the little bot and use it to bury Ross. 

The security team opened the door finally and Tony glanced at the bot on the wall, nodding his head imperceptibly, before being nudged forward.

The next room they were led to was a bright all white room with three sets of ugly blue scrubs laid out beside small plastic bins. The beefy Lieutenant Berenger moved forward with his keys out and first moved to Maria and began to uncuff her. 

“You are hereby required to deposit all personal property into the bins provided for you and to strip into your new approved clothing. Not complying to these orders will place you in direct disobedience with Raft ordinance number 22182 and will result in additional punishment for your actions. Do you understand these orders as they have been relayed to you?” he asked, moving on from Maria and to Howard’s cuffs. 

“You’re kidding me right?” Tony asked, and his parents turned to him again in disbelief after he had just promised to watch himself. 

This however couldn’t be avoided if he hoped to implement the next part of his plan. 

“What part of that wasn’t clear, Mr. Stark?” he said, roughly releasing Howard's cuffs and coming to stand beside him. 

“I mean that there is a lady present in this room and you expect her to what? Strip down and give you and your men a show? Let's not even mention how many human rights you are already violating in having us here but do you really want to add sexual misconduct to that list? Because once I get out of here, and I will get out,” Tony continued, pulling himself to his tallest height, his chin proudly jutted forward, “My lawyers are going to nail your ass to the wall so hard that you’ll be lucky if you’re able to clean the toilets in Leavenworth...sir,” he added, mockingly. 

Tony had honestly expected another blow to the face after this exchange and was pleasantly surprised to see that though he was red faced with reserved anger, the Lieutenant seemed to be thinking his words over as he glanced over at Maria warily. 

Berenger snapped at the other three guards in the room. “Out in the hall, now.” When his men began to comply he turned back to Tony. “Just because we’re not in the room, doesn’t mean that we don’t have eyes on everything that is happening,” he said pointing to a small camera at the corner of the ceiling and to the one way glass on the door his men had exited from. “I’ll be right outside the door. You have five minutes,” he finished with a stern glare, and removed the cuffs from Tony’s aching wrists. 

Tony rubbed at his wrists in annoyance, they were red and chafed like he knew that they would be, but he had succeeded in getting those bone heads out of the room and that was the important part right now. 

Howard escorted Maria over to the corner with the camera, placing her within its blind spot and taking off his suit jacket to shield any part of her from being exposed to Ross’ men. 

Tony slowly set forth removing his own jacket, giving his parents the little privacy that they had been spared. He quickly changed into the scrub pants that had been provided first, his eye minutely straying towards the camera. He undid his now ordinary watch from his wrist and dropped it into the bucket. Even if Ross and his goons tried to look it over or analyze it they would never be able to tell that anything was amiss. 

Next came the tricky part. 

He casually undid his tie and dropped it in the bucket angling his body  _ just so  _ as he unbuttoned his shirt and deftly removed the Iron Man cufflinks from his shirt, twisting off the decorative Iron Man helmets and letting them fall into the bucket while a quick sleight of hand hid their real purpose in his hands. 

Tony quickly dressed after that, weary of being in such a vulnerable position, and threw on the long sleeve undershirt provided and then the blue scrub top. He rummaged for the pocket square in his coat to dab at the slow bleed from his lip when he realized that he still had his cell phone in his jacket. There was no way in hell Ross’ team could ever hack a Stark Industries phone, let alone his own, but still precautions should be taken. Keeping his angle, back blocking out his movements, he pulled the device out and activated it with his thumb print, not surprised when he had several unread messages and missed calls. He managed a quick text to Pepper and the Avengers group chat (he had a damn StarkPhone, of course he had service in the middle of the ocean), the messages encoded and scrambled in case they were somehow intercepted. 

That’s when he noticed an old text thread from Peter. 

Shit.

How in all of his planning had he forgotten to forewarn Peter Parker?

_ Not sure what you've seen but hang tight…  _ was all he managed to type before the handle on the door the guards had exited from started turning. 

His father must have realized what he was doing and he stepped in front of Tony to block him from view, already fully dressed in the horrid outfits, his mother also close beside him. He quickly finished the message off and then hit the emergency reset button on the side of the phone, clearing out any information it may have contained, including information about Spiderman or Peter Parker. He tossed the remainder of his belongings into the tub and stepped back as the guards filed in. 

The Lieutenant looked them all over and once satisfied led them back into the new hallway, the opposite side of the Raft that Tony had previously been in, and placed them all together into one of the glass paneled cells. There was a single bed on one wall and a steel stool on the other side. 

The heavy door shut behind them and there was no further interaction from any of the Raft’s operatives. 

Tony stepped forward to the reinforced glass with bars running horizontally across it. The view was certainly different from the other side of the glass. 

For a moment he could hear Clint’s clapping echoing in his head from months ago.

_ “The futurist everyone!!!” _

He shook the memory from his mind and took in the other cells around them, wondering why they were all placed together when there was plenty of space to separate them. 

“Well, this is cozy,” Howard said, coming to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. 

“Too cozy,” Tony replied.

Howard nodded. “Think that was intentional?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Why?”

Tony hummed under his breath and shook his head. That was what he was trying to figure out. Either meathead was an idiot or Ross wanted them all together, almost like he wanted for him and Howard to be able to put their heads together and see what they came up with. He continued scanning his surroundings, immediately detecting the small camera in the cell and spoke slowly and precisely towards the lens. 

“Hubris.”

God he hoped that Ross was watching them right now so that he knew that Tony was on to him, that this was the beginning of the end.

* * *

“That’s Tony’s grand plan?” Pepper cried out as she stood in the lab before Rhodey.

“Pretty much,” Rhodey said, throwing his hands up.

Of all the idiotic, hare brained schemes that Tony had come up with, this had to be one of the dumbest, sandwiched somewhere between flying around the world in a metal can and the time that he decided to see what would happen if he mixed two unknown chemicals together, (spoiler alert it was nothing good, about $10,000 in hospital bills and remodeling fees). It was also undeniably brave but she wouldn’t admit that until his stupid plan actually paid off.

“Rhodey, you’re supposed to be the one that stops him from doing all of the crazy ideas!” she chided.

“I know, I know,” he commiserated, waving his hands at her to calm down. “You know how it is when he gets an idea in his head though. There’s no talking him out of it.” 

She let out a huff, her hands firmly placed on her hips as she looked around the lab at anything but Rhodey’s face, knowing that as always, he was right. Rhodey could mitigate the damage from a lot of Tony’s decisions but even he was fallible when it came to his best friend’s wild certainty. 

“You’re right,” she said quietly, the fight suddenly leaving her. It had been such a long and exhausting day. First with the press conference and then spending the better part of the evening drinking coffee and strategizing with Christine Everhart and then legal. She just felt drained and done. “Would it have killed him to have given me a heads up?”

Rhodey smiled kindly at her and reached for her hand. “Sit down, take a break. You shouldn’t let yourself get so stressed.”

“Not you too,” Pepper sighed and sat down in the ergonomic chair that Tony usually occupied.

“Me too?”

“Just because I happen to be pregnant it doesn’t mean that I am rendered incapable of taking care of myself.”

Rhodey laughed. “Of that I have no doubts. I just meant those shoes look damn uncomfortable and you have been pacing around in them since you got here.”

“Nice save, Rhodey,” she said and kicked the offending heels off and tucked her feet beneath her. “So, what do we do?”

“We wait.”

“I was afraid that you’d say that.” She sighed again and dropped her head into her hand, massaging her temples as she tucked herself further against the arm of the chair wishing that she could just wake up and this would all be over. 

Rhodey reached out and rubbed the back of her neck gently, trying his best to help relieve some of the stress and tension. It spoke highly of their friendship that she allowed herself to be vulnerable before him like this and accepted his help where offered. Between the two of them and Happy of course, they had known Tony the longest and been through thick and thin with the genius and every single one of his bad ideas. It was nice to have someone to share the stress and camaraderie with. 

A tiny ping activated at that moment that had them both jumping up in action.

"That's the bot," Rhodey informed her, leaning forward to type something into the computer. "Friday, are you connected?" 

"I am, Colonel," she responded. "Bringing up visual feed now."

Pepper leaned forward in her seat as one of Tony's screens started with a static feed that drastically began to clear, a crisp image of what looked like a control room coming into focus and there in the middle of it was Tony and his parents. 

She exhaled in relief until he turned his head slightly to the camera. “Is he bleeding?” she asked leaning closer.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Rhodey tried to placate her, but she didn’t miss the way his voice grew lower like it always did when he was getting upset. 

With another blink of the eye they were all led out of the room and off camera.

“Where did they take them?”

“Friday can you interface with the Raft’s systems yet and get us another feed?”

“Not yet, Colonel. It’s not safe to do so. Thermal scanning does indicate that they haven’t gone far.”

“Keep us posted,” Pepper responded to the AI. 

“Of course.”

She felt a little bit better knowing that in some small capacity that Tony had the trusted AI with him. It was within her prime directive to keep Tony safe and if Tony’s creations were anything, they were steadfastly loyal and trustworthy. 

“This is good, Pep. He got Fri onboard without anyone suspecting a thing. One step closer to getting him back home.”

Her phone began buzzing beside her on Tony’s desk for what seemed like the millionth time and though she would ordinarily ignore it at this point, it was possible that it was Christine needing something more from her, so she flipped it back over and pressed the little button to wake up the screen. Instead of a new message from Christine Everhart though, her screen flashed with four big bold letters,  **TONY** .

Pepper furrowed her brow and chewed at her lip in anticipation as she quickly opened the text, wondering what he could have possibly sent her, and  _ how _ he even could have. 

_ Stop biting your lip I’m fine. Dinner on the river when they spring me from the pokey? Love T--- _

“You idiot,” she whispered to herself, a grin tugging at her lips. 

“He sent one to the Avengers chat too,” Rhodey said, turning his own phone around to show her what it said.

_ Rumors of my arrest have been greatly exaggerated...Be ready. _

“At least he’s in good spirits. When Friday can interface with their systems and find what we need, then he’ll be out of there in no time.”

“Yeah,” she said softly, looking back at the text on her phone, “I hope so.”

* * *

Friday waited patiently from her perch in the corner of the master control room. It was from here that Boss had directed her that Secretary Ross kept all of the Raft’s most important information and documentation. In addition to being the main source of operational controls, this was where all of the surveillance equipment and records were stored, in addition to passenger logs, mission reports and any other secret that the Secretary would like to stay Top Secret.

The room was too full and busy for her to try and access now. She had to wait for the perfect moment. Luckily as an AI, patience was a virtue that had been built into her coding.

She performed scans of the room every fifteen minutes, any data that she recorded instantly being transmitted back to the Tower and Colonel Rhodes for analysis as needed, as well as a continuous video and audio feed from where she was situated. So far none of Boss’ key words had come up in conversation, just mundane human talk about food and women. 

Then at 3:17am she got her opening.

The control room had steadily decreased in the number of occupants until there were only two humans left to supervise. She zoomed in when the one facing the wall closest to her stood up and stretched, a facial recognition scan was automatically implicated. 

_ Sergeant Earl J. Byrnes, 29 year old male out of Salt Lake City, UT. United States Army-Joint Special Operations Command. _

The information flashed across her camera, as well as Colonel Rhodes screens in real time. 

“I’m going to go take a piss. Hold the fort down,” he said with a yawn, and exited the room.

Friday immediately sprung into action, calculating that there was less than a 10% chance for the other operative, Specialist Duncan Anders, to turn his attention towards her movements or notice the slight interference to their screens when she connected to their systems, over the top shelf magazine he was lazily perusing. 

She fluttered down onto the console and climbed across the multitude of screens and buttons until she was exactly where she needed to be at a small USB port.

The back of the bot opened up and with a few small maneuvers she was connected and a portion of her memory began downloading into the system. A password breach box flickered onto the screen briefly until she found the correct input and hid the download progress bar in the background as it steadily climbed.

5%

12%

21%

Once she was uploaded into the mainframe, the bot would disconnect to return to a safe perch and she would begin the process of breaking down their firewalls and the necessary decryption of their documents. 

It wouldn’t be long now.

* * *

Peter had had a looooooong weekend. Like really long. Eugene O’Neill long, Mr. Stark used to say back before everything got so messed up.

After the disaster that was the ferry incident, losing the suit/internship, and the only meaningful adult friendship that Peter had ever had, he decided that he was just done with the outside world. 

He shut his phone off and tossed it on his desk hard enough to further splinter the crack that was already on the glass, closed up his laptop and did his absolute best impression of a couch potato all weekend. May regrettably had to work all weekend and there was absolutely no way that he could ask Ned to come over. 

He had messaged his friend after the incident on friday before his self imposed exile, just to let him know that he was okay, so that he wouldn’t worry, but inviting him over would have opened up another can of worms entirely. Ned would start asking questions about Mr. Stark and the ferry and what had happened, and he would have to explain to him how he lost the most important thing in his life right now. Peter didn’t want to see the disappointment in his friends eyes like he had seen in Mr. Stark’s and even somewhat in May’s when he told her he lost the “internship.” Not when his feelings were still so raw around the edges. 

So, he watched movies all weekend. The Lord of the Rings extended edition alone took up nearly all of his saturday and then he switched to Star Wars, prequels first and then episodes four through six. He’d moved from his cocoon of blankets and pillows on the couch only for bathroom breaks and to grab more leftover takeout from the fridge. 

Honestly, it was the most depressive weekend he had had since his Uncle Ben had passed.

When Monday morning broke and brought with it a new school day, Peter knew that he had no choice but to rejoin society as plain old Peter Parker, ex-super hero. 

He went through the motions of brushing his teeth and combing his hair and pulling together a random outfit from his dresser. 

Peter stared long and hard at his cell phone, still sitting on his desk where he had thrown it on friday, wondering if it would even be worth it to turn on. What if Mr. Stark had tried to text him? To take back everything that he said to him on Friday, offering to give the suit back? Then again...what if Mr. Stark said nothing at all? The latter was more likely. Mr. Stark had rarely interacted with him in the previous months and that was all part of the problem wasn’t it?

In the end he compromised, grabbing the phone and putting it in his pocket but leaving it turned off for now. He’d torture himself later when he had a free period at school.

“Peter…” May’s voice called from the living room.

“I know, I’m coming,” he called out, gathering his books.

“ _ Peter, _ ” she called again but this time there was an odd strain in her voice and he felt a tingle go down his back.

Dread coiled like a ball of lead in the pit of his stomach and his hands began to sweat. He dropped his backpack to the floor and popped out of his bedroom and into the living room. May stood like a statue in the center of the room, looking at the tv, one of her hands raised up to cover her mouth. She hadn’t even changed out of her scrubs yet, having just gotten in from her last overnight shift.

“May?” he asked, approaching slowly. “What happened?”

Was it the Vulture guy again? Or something with the Avengers? She’d watched him follow the Accords process for weeks, watching the boring hearings sometimes that would come up on C-SPAN, and she knew how much they meant to him. Or worse... maybe it was something with Mr. Stark...Peter didn’t know what he would do if something horrible had happened to him while he had spent the weekend oblivious to his surroundings.

“I don’t think it was your fault that you lost that internship,” she said turning towards him and letting him get a clear look at the television. 

It was the news from the looks of it and onscreen they kept replaying footage of what looked like some kind of conference, only Howard and Mrs. Stark was also present...and that wasn’t right. Why the heck would they be there? Then the screen would change to footage of Secretary Ross bursting in and arresting The Stark’s. 

Then Peter’s eyes skimmed down to the headline bar and Peter had to do a double take.

**MERCHANT OF DEATH RETURNS? TONY STARK ARRESTED FOR TREASON**

The words slipped out of his mouth before he even had a chance to stop himself.

_ "What the fuck?!” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that was fun...right??? Just a taste of what's to come... :D :D :D :D *runs far far away*


	30. The Interrogation Pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone. Sorry as always for the delay. This last week has kicked my ass. Worked 7 days in a row and am trying to Homeschool my kiddos and everything else under the sun, so forgive me. 
> 
> So, this chapter I will warn you of a possible TW: for I don't want to necessarily label it graphic content, but there is an injury that while not described in horrid detail, could possibly squick you out. If needed I have placed what happens down at the END comments so you can decide for yourself if you're okay to read that. 
> 
> Also I spent way more time researching this injury than was strictly necessary and still probably fudged plenty of medical details. So apologies in advance for any of my readers in the medical field for my ignorance. lol
> 
> Love you all. Leave me a comment down below! <3

If there was one part that Peter missed most about being Spiderman in his three days so far of exile, the number one thing by far was the use of his web shooters. On a normal day, swinging from Queens to Manhattan especially in a pinch like he was today would have been a literal breeze. But he wasn’t Spiderman anymore. He was just Peter Parker and Peter Parker couldn’t swing across the city in ten minutes flat anymore. Instead he found himself squished together in an overcrowded subway car sandwiched between a self important businessman talking too loud on his phone and another guy whose pores were practically secreting Funyuns.

He tried his best to ignore his surroundings and instead pulled up the text message that had been haunting him since he turned his phone back on that morning. 

_ Not sure what you’ve seen but hang tight, kid. Be safe. I’m sorry.  _

Peter read, reread and then read it again, his thumb running up and down the jagged crack on his screen that cut through the words ‘I’m sorry.’ A mix of emotions flashed through him every time he looked at the screen. Residual anger still lingering over Mr. Stark taking his suit and also anger that the first text that Mr. Stark had sent him in weeks was what practically amounted to a goodbye. Confusion mixed with the anger over the fact that once again he had apparently been left out of something important and left to parse through the events on his own. When those feeling tapered off then he was finally gripped with worry and anxiety because SHIT, Mr. Stark had been  _ arrested _ by Secretary Ross, and while Peter had absolutely no doubts to Mr. Stark’s innocence, that didn’t mean that the rest of the world would feel the same. 

After thirty-four minutes of of absolute subway torture, Peter propelled himself from the car, maybe nudging self important guy and b.o. man with a little more strength than necessary and darted towards the steps and out onto the Manhattan streets. The morning was cool with crisp, autumn air as he gained his bearings on the street, looking around at the street signs around him. 

It would still be at least a fifteen minute walk to get to Stark Tower especially with all the foot traffic this early in the morning. Peter weaved his way in and out of the tourists gawking at all the buildings and expertly pushed his way around his fellow New Yorkers rushing off to work and school. His quickened pace and a couple quick shortcuts allowed him to cut his commute time nearly in half, arriving at the building without even breaking a sweat, only to be faced with a final roadblock. Quite literally. 

The front entrance of Stark Tower was practically mobbed by the media and barricades had been put in place to keep the front doors from being blocked. Security had been posted up as well and Peter popped up onto his tippy toes to see if he could spy Happy anywhere but the angry head of security was nowhere to be found.

Peter pulled out his phone and brought up Happy’s number and dialed it hoping that for once he would answer, but nothing in Peter’s life had ever been easy. The call went straight to voicemail each time that he tried and though Peter knew it was probably set up that way to avoid the media he still felt a little hurt. 

So, now he was left with just a couple of options. He could go through the front door, he did have a badge to get in thanks to his fake internship, but then the media would see him and in the five minutes he had been observing them, they were mobbing every unsuspecting worker that came in or out for information that they would never know. So, going through the front door would probably create more questions than needed. 

On the other hand he could try the back way. By back way he meant sneaking through the private garage that Happy had taken him through before and hoping that his badge would work there as well.

The very last, bottom of the barrel idea was that he could climb up, but climbing ninety-three stories without any kind of spider suit or webs seemed especially daunting and stupid. He trusted himself to make that climb but one slip and he was a pancake. That was a story that Ms. Potts really didn’t need to deal with right now. 

The private garage entrance was surprisingly devoid of a crowd and Peter was able to easily slip by unnoticed, though Peter suspected that Friday’s systems would have easily spotted him and he would have been removed if he were anyone else. (He liked to think at least). His thinking was confirmed when he made it to the garage’s elevator and the doors immediately opened. 

“Welcome Mr. Parker,” Friday’s voice called out pleasantly, the sweet irish lilt to her tone betraying no conscious worry to the situation her creator was in. 

“Hey, Fri. Um. Can you take me to Ms. Potts please? Or Happy. I just need to see someone.”

“Of course. Alerting Colonel Rhodes of your arrival,” she said and the elevator doors shut behind Peter, nothing but the quiet hum of the elevator filling the silence as the car made its way up the many floors of Stark Tower.

Peter slumped back against the rail behind him, letting loose a huff of breath and covering his face, trying to figure out exactly what he was going to say or do when he got to his destination. 

His thoughts turned back to the new reports that he watched that morning with May and he felt a surge of anger rise back up inside him. It hadn’t been immediately known at the time of the Stark families arrest as to the cause, but information was slowly being released, connecting Mr Stark specifically to a string of dangerous weapons found in New York...the same weapons that Peter had been tracking for weeks and that he knew without a single doubt in his mind did not come from Mr. Stark.

Ross ’team though were working to weave quite a web though, insinuating that they could connect Mr. Stark to the alien weapons and claiming further evidence that Howard Stark had been in connection with the terrorist organization Hydra with whom he had also built dangerous weapons for. The narrative insisted that the men had worked together to forge the weapons which thanks to Mr. Stark’s position within the Department of Damage Control allowed him exclusive access to otherworldly and dangerous materials. 

It was all bullshit. Unsubstantiated bullshit.

Not a single piece of actual evidence had been given but the media was wild for it. Peter went through every single news channel and affiliate before he left the apartment in a frenzy, and they were all running the same slanderous headlines, mistaking sensationalized sound bites for actual news reporting. What stations weren’t going through Mr. Stark and Stark Industries pre-Iron Man history was focusing on Howard and Maria’s lives up until they had disappeared, theorizing as to where they had been all of these years. Mr. Stark had never made it that far in the press conference so they were left with nothing but outlandish ideas that even conspiracy websites would probably pause at.

It burned Peter up from the inside out to watch everything unfold from the sidelines. Maybe though this was the opportunity that he needed to do some real good. If he could find out who was really producing the weapons and turn them in, then that was half of the case against Mr. Stark already. 

All he had to do now was try and convince Rhodey to let him help. 

* * *

Rhodey wasn’t sure what he expected when Friday alerted him to Peter Parker’s presence within the building but he knew that whatever transpired in the next few moments was not going to be easy, so he powered down the screen where he was tirelessly tracking Friday’s progress on the Raft’s files (surprisingly well encoded), then he leaned back in his chair, folded his arms and waited.

Not but a moment later a haggard looking Peter Parker burst through the doors of the lab, brow knitted together in a grim determination, decidedly more calm than Rhodey had anticipated him being, which did not bode well for him. He had seen that face before on another young boy a lifetime ago who once he got a bad idea in his head had to see it through no matter the cost. 

“What can I do for you, Parker?”

Peter came to an abrupt stop before him. “Mr. Rhodes, I need you to give me my suit back.”

Rhodey squinted his eyes. “Give you your suit back…” he slowly repeated each word back to Peter, who clenched his jaw but remained steadfast otherwise.

“So, I can fix this.”

“Fix what?”

“You know what I mean, sir. So, I can find out who is really behind these weapons and put him in jail to clear Mr. Stark and Howard. This was my mission from the start to handle and I messed up. I owe it to Mr. Stark and everyone to fix it.”

Rhodey could hardly believe that this kid was real. He had the capacity to do so much good in this world, though like his mentor, he also carried the weight of the world on his shoulders and he was far too young to be buried by that kind of guilt. Peter was going to make an amazing Avenger one day but Rhodey knew that today would not be that day.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”

With this rebuff Peter finally lost his steely gaze, face morphing into one of hurt, his words coming out more strained, more desperate as he tried like hell to keep his cool. 

“I know that I messed up a few days ago, and I wouldn’t be here asking if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do. I can help too, Mr. Rhodes, if you would just give me a chance, please.”

_ If only it were that easy. _

Rhodey held his hand up to stop Peter from continuing and shook his head sadly. “That’s not the way that this works, kid. We already have this under control…”

The anger flashed on Peter’s face again. “And that’s why Mr. Stark is locked up somewhere?”

The barb thrown at Rhodey should have been easily deflected, this was what he and Tony had planned for after all, yet he still felt that sting of pain that regardless of their plans, his friend was currently languishing away in an unconstitutional prison with a mad man while he waited here for Friday to hopefully find some damning information, damning enough that it would get Tony out of this mess. 

“Listen, I know that this sucks, and I want to help you, but Tony is doing this for you, and I know for a fact that he does not want you involved.”

Rhodey thought that maybe he got through to the young hero as his stance visibly deflated, all the fierceness ripped away in a single moment as he folded in on himself, wrapping his arms across his chest. Then Rhodey realized his slip of the tongue.

“For me?” Peter questioned meekly.

“Shit.” Rhodey ran a hand across his face tiredly. He hadn’t meant to let that knowledge slip out, not to Peter. 

“I don’t understand.”

Rhodey stood up from his chair, leg braces whirring quietly as he approached Peter and placed a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Look, it’s not my place to say, just trust me on this one.”

Peter ripped away from his grip, taking a couple of steps back, suddenly on high alert again.

“No, I am tired of being left out and lied to. I can help. Why can’t you just trust me this once, sir?”

“It’s not that we don’t trust you, Peter…”

“Then why am I being left behind?”  Peter stared at him with wide expressive brown eyes full of hurt and confusion and felt his normal resolve crumbling beneath the weight.

_ Tony, forgive me. _

“Look, we have been tracking these weapons even longer than you have and we think that we can connect it all to Secretary Ross and to someone named Toomes. A lot happened in between but Ross came to Tony with an ultimatum of sorts after he found out that Howard and Maria are alive. One of the things that Ross was after is information on you,” he said and pointed his finger at Peter’s chest.

“Why me?”

“He says it’s because of the Accords but Tony and I don’t really believe that. Ross isn’t a fan of enhanced individuals and has been after Bruce Banner for years as well. When Tony didn’t give you up, Ross made a big spectacle and arrested him.”

Peter’s eyes widened in realization.

“Do you see now why even if I knew where Tony put the suit that I couldn’t give it to you? You go in guns blazing on this and you’ll only make everything worse for Tony. We have a plan in place to nab the weapons guy and as we speak, Friday is working on decrypting hopefully damning evidence on the Secretary to link everyone together. That’s why Tony let himself be arrested, okay?”

“What about Howard and Maria?”

“Ross doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to them.” That much Rhodey was confident of. It just came down to being able to prove it and Rhodey wasn’t sure what kind of warped authority Ross held over the Raft but so far every attempt to gain contact on the Raft had been rebuffed.

“What can I do, sir? Please, I have to do something.”

Rhodey reached out a tentative hand again and when Peter didn’t make any move to pull away again, placed it on his shoulder and squeezed. “Go to school. Be Peter Parker for a little while and let us finish this for you.”

“I can’t just--”

“You can and you have to, just this once. I know it sucks but that is your best play right now.”

Peter seemed to be struggling between accepting what he was being told and his desire, his need, to be of service. Rhodey watched his concerns play out on his expressive face and resolved that once all this madness was over that he’d make sure that Tony got his head out of his ass when it came to this kid and mentored him properly. Though he supposed with Ross out of the picture that was certainly going to make that easier to be done.

“Can you at least promise me that you’ll keep me updated on what happens? And if you need my help you will tell me?”

Rhodey offered him a kind smile. “I can do that.”

They exchanged numbers after that and though Rhodey could tell that the boy was trying to find any excuse to linger around and be part of his operation, Peter had run out of excuses and knew it. Rhodey tried to be as reassuring as possible to the youth as he walked him back out to the elevator and Peter for his part, tried to be content with the role that he had been given even though Rhodey could see the ends beginning to fray for him. 

Peter wasn’t going to stop. He couldn’t. It wasn’t in him to give up whether it was in his best interests or not. All Rhodey could do now as the elevator doors slowly closed behind the boy, was hope that he wouldn’t do anything stupid.

He returned back to the lab and his vigil on Friday’s progress only for his own blood pressure to skyrocket in frustration when she was no further decrypting Ross’ files now than she had been before.

* * *

Tony wasn’t sure how much time had passed since his arrival to the Raft. There were no clocks, no windows. No way to tell the passage of time. The fluorescent lights had never been shut off in the joint cell since they had all been placed inside and no one had even interacted with them since then either, whether to provide meals or make sure they were still alive, and Tony was pretty sure that had been deliberate on Ross’ part to disorient them. 

He was about 79% sure it was now Tuesday though based on his folks sleep patterns. He couldn’t rely on his own as broken and irregular as they were. Tony didn’t sleep that first day at all, his brain wouldn’t let him, too busy running calculations as to how long it would take for Friday to get into the systems and how long until that information could be acted on. Even his mother’s careful prodding hadn’t been enough to slow him down when she had gently clutched his shoulder and encouraged him to give up his vigil. 

A singular thin blanket and pillow was all that had been provided for them to use in addition to the bed and Howard and Tony were both in agreement that Maria should be granted the little accommodations that they had received so far. His mother being who she was though had fought them tooth and nail on it until she was reminded exactly how stubborn her boys could be and given in to exhaustion. 

Howard had mirrored Tony’s own energy, restless and uneasy in the beginning He alternated between sitting on the lone stool provided and pacing back and forth as much as he could in a room so small. When he finally did try and rest at Maria’s later insistence, he leaned his body back up against the bunk, one hand holding onto hers and his face pillowed against his knees, but Tony knew that if he slept at all it wasn’t much. 

That was the position that they were both in now as Tony watched over them. His father sighed and lifted his head up, neck cracking from the uncomfortable position as he shuffled around to find something comfortable. 

Tony came over and sat beside him, his shoulders brushing against the older man’s as he stretched his arms out behind him. Howard glanced over at him questioningly as he resettled his arms across his knees and laid his head back down. 

“How are you holding up, old man?” Tony asked with a wry grin. 

“Fantastic. I’m thinking of vacationing here annually, actually,” he responded dryly. 

“Now let's be honest, Howard, who was more accommodating, the German terrorists or the current American ones?”

That brought forth a snort of laughter. “Well, it depends on how we do the judging. Hydra sent an assassin to wreck my car and hold me hostage, but while their methods are certainly questionable they did at least know how to turn out a light and provide some especially disgusting food, so I’d say that it’s a toss up at this point. Certainly warmer than Siberia though.”

“Try being in a desert,” Tony joked back, readjusting his position so his knees were bent in front of him like Howard’s and resting his arm straight out. Subconsciously he gripped the cuff link attachment in his hand. 

Howard sighed tiredly. “How did we wind up like this?” 

“Would you like your answer chronologically or alphabetically?”

“Please just remind me that this plan is going to work. I’ve had my fill with captivity.”

Tony briefly flashed the transmitter in his palm to his father before hiding it back out of site. “It’ll work. I know this guy, he’s a total tool. If I can get him talking and keep him talking we’ll be out of here by lunch time.”

“If there was lunch time,” Howard lamented. 

“All just more damning evidence against him,” he shrugged. 

As if on cue there was a brief beeping and the hiss of a door lock being opened. Tony jumped up to his feet with Howard following in step albeit a little slower as he turned to gently shake Maria into wakefulness. 

Several guards filled the room led by the same Lieutenant from when they were deposited, his face as stoney as ever. 

“It’s about time you guys came back, the room service here is terrible,” Tony quipped, and of course it went wasted on the hard faced men. 

“Put your hands together and hold them out in front of you,” the Lieutenant insisted as his subordinates produced handcuffs for each of them.

“Still haven’t developed a personality yet, huh?” He questioned but nonetheless complied, keeping his grimace minimal as the cuffs were once again dug into his already abused wrists. He had to admit the positioning was perfect though and he was able to easily continue to conceal the transmitter he’d made with Rhodey.

Without further fanfare the three of them were led from the cell and down the hall, away from where they had first come through. Everything that they passed was fairly nondescript, just doors and more hallways, nothing damning that Tony could see. 

When they arrived at their destination it was about what Tony had expected. A large interrogation room with a bolted down metal table in the center with several chairs surrounding it. There was one way glass at one end of the room and Tony knew that Ross was on the other side watching his every move, hidden like the coward he was. The Lieutenant pushed him forward towards the table and seated them all around it on the uncomfortable metal chairs. The handcuffs were then connected to another smaller chain built into the center of the table to prevent them from moving. The Lieutenant remained posted in the corner of the room as the other grunts filed back out and then finally Ross came strutting in with a Manila folder gripped in his hands, his uniform traded for a dark suit and tie. 

Showtime. 

Tony smiled at the secretary and prepared the transmitter in his hand. A little bit of a distraction was all he needed, there was enough slack on the handcuff chain for him to just barely be able to place his hands under the table to plant the device. Much like when he’d been on the helicarrier at the advent of the Avengers he had to perform another sleight of hand maneuver with some good old song and dance.

“Ah, Secretary, how good of you to join us. I was just telling your flunky that unfortunately despite having such unique accommodations, I’m probably going to one-star you on Yelp because your turn down service is for shit.”

“Tell me, Stark. Do you ever get tired of the sound of your own voice?” Ross asked, moving into Tony’s personal space in an attempt to be intimidating.

“Would it surprise you if I said no?”

Ross huffed. “Not in the slightest.”

Tony flashed Ross his favorite condescending press smile. “Well, there you have it.”

“Lets not continue to waste our time then,” he said and leaned away from Tony, walking around to the other side of the table. 

While Ross’ back was turned Tony flipped the transmitter over and up, pushing it against the underside of the metal table. The little device adhered to the flat service and briefly turned red until it scanned Tony’s fingerprint and flashed a low green to acknowledge the start of transmission.

* * *

Back in Stark Tower, the screen that had been showing Friday’s progress let out a low beep as a new window opened underneath to depict audio waves. 

Rhodey immediately turned in his chair at the new intrusion and quickly typed in a series of commands on the screen and then the room was filled with the sound of voices.

“Given how volatile things have always been between us I decided it was probably best if I gave you all what I like to call a thirty-six hour meditation period. How has that been working out for you?”

That was definitely the voice of Secretary Ross coming through loud and clear, which meant that Tony’s little transmitter was actually working.

“Aside from the egregious assault on our eighth amendment rights you mean?”

And there was Tony. 

Rhodey felt tension he didn’t even realize he was holding drop from his shoulders, his body sagging in relief. The more time that had passed from the time Tony was arrested and the time it took to plan the transmitter had Rhodey thinking that the device had been discovered for sure, or at the very least damaged. It wasn’t that he didn’t have faith in Tony, but there was so much more riding on this working out exactly the way that they had planned, very little room for deviation. 

“You crazy son of a bitch,” Rhodey muttered into his arms as he laid his face down in exhaustion. 

The audio continued to play, everything transmitted being automatically recorded on Tony’s private servers. It was only a matter of time now. 

* * *

“You still don’t get it do you?” Ross chuckled, his face still as openly smug as it had been when he had arrested them 

“Enlighten me.” Tony slouched back against his seat as best as he could with his shackles, projecting a carefree demeanor that he knew would grate under Ross’ skin.

“You have no rights here either as a prisoner or a private citizen. For all intents and purposes I may as well be Jesus Christ right now because there is no higher authority over this vessel, do you understand? I control who comes and goes from here. I control when and _ if _ you receive meals, or sleep, or any other luxury.”

“Like you controlled the Avengers while they were interned here? Just wanted to clarify.” 

Ross flashed a tight smile and Tony knew that the last barb had hit its mark. “You sure have a lot to say Stark so why don't we all just move on to the question and answer portion of our visit.”

“Perfect, I'll start. I get what your problem is with me, you've been carrying a grudge since Stark Industries took away your toys when I came back from Afghanistan. What doesn't make sense is holding my folks hostage for simply existing,” he said nodding his head at the pair whom to this point Ross almost acted like didn’t even exist. “Historically speaking, holding a Stark against their will doesn't turn out too well for the other team.”

Between them all they had taken on Hydra and the Ten Rings and actually lived to tell the tale. Secretary Ross was practically peanuts in comparison and Tony wanted him to know that. To know that what he was doing now was never going to amount to anything that the man wanted, if only because Tony wouldn't let it. If the Ten Rings couldn't crack him, no one could. 

"We're getting off topic," Ross began and pulled out one of the empty chairs at the head of the table, letting the metal legs screech uncomfortably across the floors.

"Are we though?"

"Let's start off real simple then." Ross flopped down the folder he had been holding and folded his hands overtop of it. "Tell me about Bruce Banner. You've been...teammates with him for awhile now despite his Jekyll and Hyde complex. I need information on him."

"Brucie bear? Oh you know, he's about 5’8 and a half, kinda got this salt and pepper curly hair going on which is nice, makes him look very distinguished in my opinion. His fashion sense is still a little lacking but if you catch him on a chino’s day you won’t regret it. Just don’t make him angry, he loses half of his wardrobe that way and not in the bodice ripping novel way."

Tony took pride in the subtle way the Secretary's jaw clenched further around his already tightened smile. Just a little longer and he could get this guy to pop off with everything he needed and be back to the tower by dinner. 

"That's truly fascinating," Ross responded in a measured tone. "And his location?"

"Gosh, you know he didn't really leave a forwarding address but if I had to guess right now I would have to say somewhere on planet earth."

He hoped anyways. Nat never had been able to track him or the quinjet and if there was anyone that Tony felt could crack his stealth technology it was definitely his favorite assassin.The newer quinjets though were built for every manner of situation including interplanetary travel (the Chitauri may have influenced that decision) so if he wasn’t on Earth any longer, well...they’d probably never find him. Not that he would ever tell Ross that. If Bruce was really that far gone then Tony would be content to let Ross run in circles looking for him. Honestly, crippling fear of space notwithstanding, the idea of getting the hell off of this planet for a while did sometimes feel like it would be a welcomed break. 

Maybe he didn’t have to go that far though. Maybe just upstate to a certain unused cabin, surrounded by a picturesque lake and far from reach from anyone or anything he didn’t want to be found by. Going off the grid so to speak. The idea swirled in his mind, a welling of excited anticipation filling him from the inside out. 

“Then let’s move on to Spiderman.”

Tony couldn’t keep himself from snapping back to attention, all thoughts of renovations and night swims in the lake with Pepper shattering away.

“I’d watch it, Secretary. Your obsession with this topic is really bordering on stalker-ish, kinda on the same level as that J. Jonah guy that rants and raves on AM radio all the time. You don’t want to be  _ that _ guy, do you?”

Ross continued without so much as a flinch. “Spiderman is a dangerous vigilante who thus far has not only avoided signing the Accords that you yourself campaigned so hard in favor of, but has only just recently interfered in the Federal investigation of a dangerous arms dealer.” He tilted his head down as if speaking to a child and raised his eyebrows in expectation.

It was on the tip of his tongue to scream that Peter was only fifteen years old and as a result of which could not legally sign the Accords documents. Instead Tony imagined to himself how absolutely satisfying it would be to just lay this bastard out with a right hook. He didn’t even need the suit to do it either. He knew martial arts and boxing, knew about thirty different ways to kill someone without even leaving a mark (thank you, Natasha), the Secretary wouldn’t even know what hit him, literally. 

Tony did find it rather ironic and brazen of the man to actually bring up the very weapons dealer that he had a hand in creating, or at the very least, funding. 

“It’s funny how we keep coming back around to these same conversations. It’s like being stuck in a time loop.”

“Perhaps, thirty-six hours wasn’t long enough to hope that you would be able to communicate with me like a man,” Ross continued, seemingly unperturbed. He stood back up, scooting the chair out from behind him just as loudly as he had when he sat and grabbed the mysterious folder again. “I thought you would have raised your son better than that, Howard.”

Howard let the dig roll off of his back even as his mother noticeably bristled. “I would have thought a man of your position would do better than to arrest innocent people on trumped up charges just to stroke your ego a little harder, yet here we are.”

“That’s cute. Really. You think you have the upper hand here for some reason and I can respect that. I’ll give you another twelve hour meditation on that and then perhaps we can reconvene and you can find out how serious I am.”

“Or you’ll just continue to waste our time and violate our rights. I hope that you are ready for the new asshole my lawyers are going to rip you when we get out of here,” Tony interjected. 

“You still don’t get it,” Ross spoke softly under his breath and then let loose a long sigh. He came back around to stand before Tony, calm and poised, whatever miff he was able to cause him earlier now seemingly forgotten about. He reached out with his large hand and clamped it across Tony’s left shoulder, grip purposefully tight as he squeezed at the joint. 

Tony couldn’t help but to flinch away slightly from Ross’ touch, feeling that familiar ache from his arm sending a brief shock of pain down his arm as the man held on tighter to him. 

“How is your injury doing? I remember last time you were a guest here, this wasn’t looking so swell.”

“I’m touched by your concern. Maybe instead you could focus on providing a meal or two.”

Tony would have rather starved to death than to actually ask for food, but that wasn’t something that he could watch his mother go through. She didn’t deserve to be there. Neither did he or Howard but she was a mere bystander in Ross’ power play and if there was something he could do to make this a little more bearable then he would. 

Ross smirked and offered a final squeeze to his shoulder and stepped back out of his space. “Sure, just as soon as you give me what I want.”

When Tony made no move to answer, Ross turned back to Lieutenant Berenger still standing off to the side. With a snap of his fingers the man was at his side and Ross casually placed his hands back in his pockets. “Please remind Mr. Stark about what the penalty is for non-compliance.”

“It’d be my pleasure, sir.”

An uneasy tension filled the air as Berenger popped his head outside the door, talking in hushed whispers to the grunts Tony assumed remained posted just beyond. He felt his hands beginning to sweat and was quick to try and wipe the moisture away on the ugly scrub pants. 

Whatever they had planned he knew that he could take it, but his mind kept flashing back to a cave and another penalty for not producing results. The way that they dragged him to the bucket of water and forced him under, holding him there and letting it swallow his cries of pain. Or sometimes it was like now, one of the men popping their head out and yelling at their underlings to bring the bucket to them so they wouldn’t have to be bothered with lugging his car battery around when he passed out. He mentally tried to reassure himself that there was no way that Ross could know about that particular trauma. It was never listed anywhere in the details of his capture, even in the Shield file, he’d made sure of it. Still. His mind kept providing the images to him and his breaths started to come a little quicker, chest rising and falling rapidly. He had to get a grip. Couldn’t let Ross find a weakness. He was over all this shit wasn’t he? It had been over eight years. Why couldn’t he get it together?

A sharp kick to his foot beneath the table snapped him out of his daze and he turned to see his both parents gazing at him with concern filling their eyes. Howard raised his eyebrows at him and mouthed to him, _ “Are you okay?” _

He provided a shaky and probably not all that reassuring nod to them and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and quietly releasing it. Ross was too busy watching the Lieutenant to notice Tony's distress thankfully and he was able to quash down the bulk of the panic by the time Berenger fully reentered the room again.

Thankfully, there was no bucket of water dragged in, no terrorists shouting in his face. No, it was just Berenger and a really large military issued nightstick. In the grand scheme of things it was underwhelming to the horrors that his mind had conjured up and yet so simplistic in nature and its use that Tony could immediately put two and two together to understand what was about to happen. 

“I really don’t see how this is necessary…” Maria spoke for the first time since they had been brought into the interrogation room. She eyed the weapon wearily, trying and failing to contain the horror on her face, her mouth hanging slightly open. 

Ross ignored her and ran his eyes up and down Tony’s form. “I think three ought to do for now.”

Berenger nodded in assent and grabbed the back of Tony’s chair, pulling it out slightly from the table. 

All Tony could do to protect himself was repeat a steady mantra in his head.

_ Don’t tense up. Don’t tense up. Don’t tense up. _

God he hoped that Pepper wasn’t listening along with Rhodey. 

The first blow fell heavy and sharp against his bicep, just missing the intended target as Tony turned in against himself at the last possible moment. He nearly bit through his lip to suppress the cry of pain that followed, the iron like tang of blood spilling onto his tongue, as fiery pain radiated up and down his arm. He didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of seeing him wounded. 

_ “Stay still you little prick,”  _ he heard from somewhere beside him but it wasn’t the right voice. It was Obie’s voice when they stood on the rooftop of Stark Industries facing off against each other in their new suits. Only that was all wrong too because Obie was dead, had been dead for years and he could just make out the angry shouts of his parents through the fog of pain clouding his mind. 

The next blow was much like the first, the pain starting anew and sending a shudder all the way down to his fingertips. At least it wasn’t his right arm. If this caused any long term damage he would still be able to create, still be able to write and draft ideas. His groan of pain was a little less muffled, his control slipping slightly as he squeezed his eyes shut against the sting. 

The last blow hit its mark. 

A deafening pop resounded in Tony’s ears and at first he thought that he was the only one that had heard it, the room and everything in it moving in a sort of slow motion, his eyes shooting open in shock as his body tried to process the trauma it had been dealt. Then just as easily as his mind had shut down, it booted back up, as the offending limb went limp against his chest and brought with it an intensity of pain he didn’t think was possible. 

He didn’t even try to contain the shout that followed, his other arm involuntarily reaching out to grasp at the injury and coming up short when every minute jostle sent a fresh surge of agony all over, as his blood pounded in his ears. 

There was definitely shouting in the background but he wasn’t able to distinguish who was saying what as he tried his best to get his breathing under control, his whole body rebelling against what his mind was telling it to do.

Then Ross gripped him by the chin and turned his head roughly to face him. Tony let out a sharp gasp but Ross just waited for his mind to swim back to some form of coherency, just managing to open his eyes back up, squinting through the head rush also brought upon by the sharp movement.

“You don’t look so good, Mr. Stark. Perhaps you better go for a lie down.”

The sadistic smile of his as he patted the dislocated limb roughly, was one that would be added to the myriad of nightmares Tony already had to endure. 

* * *

Howard had been angry before. For years after the war, before he married Maria, he could easily fall into a drunken rage alone in his office after failing once more to find Steve Rogers or when his work for Stark Industries had hit a slump, unable to breach the plateau before him. 

Even his absolute worst day, paled to utter insignificance at the rage that boiled inside of him to see his son beaten in front of him. 

He had seen it briefly before and read the articles and watched the videos of Tony in his Iron Man armor, fighting to defend himself, but he was always in the suit. Now he was handcuffed, immobilized with no way to defend himself, just a couple feet away from Howard, with Maria pleading out to their captors on the other side of him to stop, even though they knew that they wouldn’t.

At the last blow, when the loud pop rang out and Tony cried out in pain, his arm going limp, it broke something inside of Howard, and he only saw red. He jumped up from his seat, the chair flying backwards at his abrupt departure. He wanted to kill those men. He wanted to take that weapon and turn it against them, inflicting the same torture upon them, but he was quickly reminded of the reality of the situation as the chain connected to his handcuffs pulled back tight against him. 

“You goddamn cowards, leave him alone!”

Neither of the men looked terribly worried about him, as he tugged the handcuffs and chains, willing them to break open under the force of his anger. Steve Rogers would have been able to do it. 

He watched as Ross grabbed his son’s incoherent face and taunted him one more time, roughly handling his injury before turning back to the bastard who followed the order. 

“Go ahead and take our guests back to their quarters. I don’t think we’ll be getting anything more today.”

The Secretary turned his back on them all and started to leave. 

“Wait! He needs medical attention you bastard, you can’t leave him like this!!” 

One of Maria’s muffled cries escaped her palm as Ross turned his head and shuffled his eyes between the two of them. 

“Do yourselves a favor and get your son to give me what I’m asking for and we can avoid days like today.”

He flashed a wide smile and winked at Howard as he left through the door. The grunts from before came in after he left and Berenger instructed them to unshackle them from the chain on the table. 

“Fuck!” Tony cried out as they released him none too gently, leaving him to practically fall to the floor.

Howard moved to jump to his help but was pushed back by the other guards. He employed the strategic use of a headbutt and made solid contact with one of the men’s noses, a swelling of satisfaction rising up through him when the men fell back, covering the rush of blood flowing out. It didn’t grant him much forward progress, Berenger moving forward and delivering a swift blow to his stomach that had him crumpling, but at least he did something, one small bit of payback. 

They were then pulled from the room and back to their cell, Tony moaning in pain the entire time, his hitching breaths echoing in the empty expanse of never ending hallways. Howard wasn’t sure if he was even fully conscious, being mostly dragged by one of the guards, arm hanging sickeningly at his side.

“He needs medical attention,” Howard reiterated, his voice rough and gravelly from shouting, as the men removed their cuffs and deposited Tony in a heap onto the cold floor. 

“Not our problem.” Was the only response he received as the door fell shut behind them. 

Howard instantly fell to his knees when they were gone and gingerly tried to assess his son. 

"Tony. Tony are you with me?" He called out, hesitate to touch or jostle him anymore than was needed.

"I-I'm awake, quit shouting," came the gasping reply.

"I had to be sure. Listen, I can help you but you need to do as I say. We need to get your shoulder back into place. These bastards aren't going to give us any help."

"I-I don't seem to recall when you got your doctorate in medicine, H-Howard," Tony slurred, blinking his eyes open just enough to meet his father's eyes. 

Howard couldn't help but to let a strained smile cross his face. Only his son would still be snarling when he was half delirious from injury.

"You forget I survived World War Two. I know enough field medicine to know that the longer we wait to do this, the stiffer your muscles will become and the worse this will get."

"W-what do you need from me?"

"Lay down flat," he said and carefully helped Tony to position himself from his uninjured side. "Okay, I need for you to stay relaxed and I'm going to gently put it back into place."

"This isn't some bullshit from a Die Hard movie is it cause as cool as Bruce Willis looks doing it, I don't think that's real," he said, taking low shuddering breaths.

"No movie logic here, son. Now breathe and relax. Don't tense."

Maria came to sit on Tony's good side, gently placing her hand into his and squeezing lightly. He flopped his head back over to look at her and she gave e him a reassuring smile through her tears from before.

"Have I ever told you about the time your father and Jarvis lost you in a wine vineyard when we were visiting Grandma Carbonell in Italy?"

Maria began recounting the story quietly, a calming balm falling over the room. Howard let her get a good ways into the disaster of a day, watching as Tony's focus gradually shifted from the pain to her soothing voice, muscles relaxing back into the floor. 

Cautiously he reached out and gripped his son's wrist with both hands, pulling the arm out straight and level with his body. He ignored the hiss of pain best he could as he slowly moved the limb in a gentle but firm motion in a pumping fashion up and down all while bringing it steadily closer to the height of his shoulder, now at a ninety degree angle from his body. 

Tony's breath hitched in his chest the higher that Howard went but he bravely held firm. 

"What happened when you found out what really happened to me?" He encouraged his mother on.

Howard continued the slight rotation of the arm as it moved closer to Tony's head and then…

_ Pop! _

Tony's hand gripped his mother's tighter, his knuckles going white as he valiantly suppressed a cry, mumbling obscenities in every language he knew, under his breath instead.

Howard pulled his arms out from the long sleeved t-shirt under his scrub top and pulled the material out, 

"Gonna have to deal with a little improvising here for now," Howard said, fashioning the shirt around Tony to support the injured limb.

He needed a real sling. Hell he needed a doctor. There could be tearing or something broken underneath and that was something Howard wasn't qualified for at all. 

"You're taking the bed today kiddo," Howard said, coming around to Maria and taking Tony's good arm to sling around his neck. 

"N-no. I can't. I'm fine right here," he mumbled weakly but neither Howard or Maria wore having it.

"I'm not a delicate flower, Anthony, I can handle sitting on the floor while you heal and I don't want to hear anything else about it."

With assistance from Tony, Howard was able to pull his boy up and carefully maneuver him to the cot. He still groaned as his limb was jostled but his eyes fell shut immediately once his head hit the pillow. 

"Were you able to do what you needed?" Howard asked quietly, covering his face with his hands so his lips couldn't be read.

Tony didn't respond verbally, just gave Howard a weakened thumbs up.

"It won't be long then, I hope."

Howard remained by Tony's side and so did Maria, soothingly running her hand through their son's sweat soaked hair.

The last thing Tony said to them before falling into a fitful sleep was a quiet apology.

_ "I'm sorry…" _

* * *

"Friday where the hell are we at on the decryption?! We need to speed things up!" Rhodey shouted, though his anger was not directed at the young AI.

Ross was such a fucking piece of scum. Rhodey would gladly give up his entire military career just to beat that man into the ground.  He didn't know what they were doing to Tony but given the cries of pain from his best friend, he could take an educated guess. 

"I was able to break through the encryption while Boss was being interrogated, I thought it best not to interrupt," came her hesitant reply. 

"Fri, this is important shit, you have to keep me updated."

"I'm sorry Colonel."

She sounded it. Rhodey felt a flash of guilt. She was just as concerned about Tony as anyone. He was her creator after all.

"What did you find?"

"That's the problem…"

Oh he did not like the sound of that. 

"Problem? What kind of problem?"

Friday hesitated again and Rhodey felt his stomach contort sickly. 

"Fri?" He prompted again, softer. 

"I wasn't able to find anything incriminating."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Tony gets beaten briefly with a baton/nightstick and it dislocates his shoulder. Later Howard resets it for him. 
> 
> I know from the last round of reviews that ya'll just love these cliff hangers. :D :D :D Please keep the fire and pitchforks to a minimum and be sure to stand 6ft apart with masks on when you come hunt me down. :D :D :D
> 
> Also, one last round of shameless self plugging. I wrote and posted a short Pepperony oneshot a couple weeks ago if anyone is interested in some fluff after this ending. 😁


	31. The Interrogation Pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A chapter delivered on time?! The world is ending...We are legit juuuuuuust about at the end of this folks. I hesitate to name how many chapters as my plans never work out. lol
> 
> This is a big boi though, coming in at just over 8500 words. :O Why am I like this? 
> 
> I love you all, stay safe and leave me a comment down below what you think of this chapter!

Pepper was going to kill him. Simple as that. She was going to kill him, then she was going to find the Raft and kill Tony for being such an idiot that he had been willing to hedge this entire operation on nothing more than luck, luck which was obviously not on their side given the big pile of nothing that Friday was able to turn up. Either Ross had dumped the system long ago or the information never existed to begin with. Neither of which were particularly helpful to their cause. 

One thing that was however, was Tony’s treatment thus far. Though even that was flimsy at best. There was no video inside the interrogation room, only audio through the bug that Tony had planted, so Rhodey couldn’t exactly say with certainty what they were doing to his best friend, even though he _knew_ they were abusing him. 

All he could do at this point was sit back and hope that Tony could garner a confession in regards to the weapons and making sure that when the time came, they were able to incriminate Toomes and force his hand into revealing his secret business partner. 

“Friday, are you absolutely sure that you were unable to find anything on the Raft’s system? Nothing about Wanda? Videos, audio files, anything?” he asked, rubbing his face with his hands, trying to ignore the pounding in his brain. 

“Correct, initial scanning has uncovered nothing incriminating.”

“Is it possible the information was moved or deleted?”

“I do not detect any sort of data deletion outside of the usual. It is possible that it could be on a separate server than the Raft’s main database.”

Rhodey thought for a moment. If he was dirty, where would he keep all of his baggage?

“Fri, does Secretary Ross have an office?”

“Scanning floor plans.”

He waited a moment as she projected the floor plans out before him, highlighting each individual area as she went through.

“There are several possible locations on this plan, but we are missing the completed plans for the entire lower level of the vessel.”

“That’s gotta be where he keeps everything then. Fri, are you able to infiltrate the area?”

“It will be difficult, but not impossible,” she responded with steely determination in her tone. 

“That’s what I like to hear. Get it done, Fri.”

In the meantime, Rhodey would monitor the bait for Adrian Toomes. They were just a couple days away now from transferring the last of the Avengers equipment upstate. He couldn’t come across a better haul, and Rhodey was going to make sure that it was his last one. 

* * *

**TONY STARK IS INNOCENT - PEPPER POTTS APPEALS TO THE WORLD**

Christine’s article came out on Wednesday morning, exactly three days since Pepper had last seen her fiancé, and she was almost terrified to see what kind of public reaction it was having. 

In the days since The Stark families' very public arrest, Stark Industries stocks had absolutely plummeted, investors eager to sell, sell, sell, now that the mind behind the company was seemingly gone forever, tainted by such a serious charge as treason. 

The general public’s reaction however had been more of a mixed bag. There were a lot of people before the article that already seemed fit to condemn Tony if only because he had been hiding such a monumental secret as his parents sudden reappearance. It made them distrustful, wondering what else he could be hiding from them, and what the circumstances were that led to such a resurrection. 

The religious zealots and conspiracists who had never been fans of Tony’s to begin with were very vocal in their outrage and what they deemed had to have been some sort of illegal experimentation, or even some sort of necromancy, because in a world with Gods and aliens, such doings surely couldn’t be that impossible, they raved. Pepper didn’t doubt that there were probably already entire forums and websites dedicated to such hogwash, lies perpetuated by the ignorant and then brought to light by the media in their desperate bids for grabby headlines and a couple of clicks. 

There had been no comment from the President or the UN Council, refusing to speak in regards to ongoing investigations, so clearly there would be no help in the matter from them either.

Surprisingly, there had been a fair amount of pushback in Tony’s favor, those who saw fit to question exactly why the arrest had been so public, exactly why it had been at the exact moment that Tony was seemingly going to explain the most important information. Tony’s work with the Accords from the very start had garnered him a fair amount of public appreciation, not only through his transparency in his involvement, but in how he had always been the one to step up and take responsibility, again something that he had seemed to be about to do until Ross had him silenced. 

Moreso questions were raised about the Secretary’s involvement at all. His twisted involvement with the Culver University incident and subsequently Harlem hadn’t exactly been forgotten nor forgiven. His appointment to Secretary of Defense had been a controversial choice by President Ellis. Arresting one of the public’s most favored figures hadn’t curried any favor either, so perhaps public support would swing in their favor.

Still. 

She hesitated to click on the article. 

She knew exactly what it said. Christine had sent it to her the night before to go over and confirm this was the story that she wanted to tell and it had been brilliant. Christine was a beautiful writer, just as skilled in her fluff pieces as she was in her brutal and unapologetic takedowns, her eloquent wording only made all the more cutting.

Pepper explained to her the circumstances of Howard and Maria’s return to life, per what had already been approved for the failed press conference, including the circumstances of their kidnapping by terrorists and how interesting and quick Ross had been in his judgement to label them the same. They spoke about Tony’s work with the Accords, in addition to humanitarian and philanthropist efforts, the type of man that he had been before and why it was something he would never be again, thus playing into the absurdity that he had committed something as atrocious as treason. She explained how Ross was gaslighting the public and impugning the Stark's integrity and grossly violating their legal rights.

Anything that Christine wanted to know, Pepper told in her own act of transparency to prove that they all had nothing to hide. That she wasn’t just speaking out because of their relationship.

She only hoped that Christine’s voice would work in her families’ favor. 

Though, things couldn’t get much worse...she hoped anyways. 

It pained her to think of Tony sitting in a jail cell somewhere, entirely unreachable so far despite their lawyer’s attempts to get further information on this Raft that he had been detained on, and exactly what the conditions were there. 

Pepper gently placed a hand to her still flattened stomach, trying not to think of the worst case scenario that whatever Tony was attempting had backfired. She couldn’t imagine a world in which she would potentially have to raise this child alone, no father, no grandparents. Grandparents that they had just gotten back, that were so excited for a second chance.

No. 

She couldn’t allow herself to think like that. 

Tony was fine. Howard was fine. Maria was fine. 

If they weren’t, she trusted Rhodey to tell her. Well...she trusted she would know when Rhodey was lying to her out of some need to protect her and that was as good as, she always knew the difference.

“Fuck it,” she mumbled under her breath and took a large swig of the coffee that was still steaming beside her, letting it clatter back down against her desk as she moved her mouse over to the link that Christine had sent her and clicked.

If public opinion wasn’t on their side after this, she wouldn’t stop working until it was.

* * *

Friday monitored the cameras for any trace of Secretary Ross but so far had come up empty. He must be located on the part of the ship that they were missing the floor plans too, surely it lacked the security cameras the rest of the vessel had been provided for some privacy. 

She watched the guards patterns throughout the vessel as they took smoke breaks or switched off. There were currently two men standing guard to the hallway of cells that she knew Boss was being held in. She was unable to monitor any vitals in this format but she was able to view her Boss via the cell’s security cameras and that was enough to relieve her, the assuredness that he was still alive. She didn’t like being this disconnected from him but she knew that she had a mission to complete.

There was a 92% probability that Secretary Ross would bring Boss back for interrogation. Once that had been completed, she could follow the man out and back to whatever secrets he was hiding on the lower level. 

The next time that the control room door was opened she was ready, slipping out of the room as quiet and unnoticeably as the arachnid she was designed after.

Friday wouldn’t be letting Boss down again.

* * *

There was a time in early 1978 that Maria had felt the same sense of helplessness that currently weighed on her shoulders. 

Anthony should have been in boarding school at the time, his first full year at Andover, but Maria had missed her son deeply in the months that he had been away. The mansion was entirely too quiet without his exuberant voice talking to her those nights when she was commitment free and able to make them family meals, Anthony sitting on the counter kicking his feet lightly against the cabinets even though she’d already told him twice he would leave scuff marks. She missed the echoes of him chasing after Jarvis in the hallways, or sitting in his room taking apart toys and putting them back together better than before. It made her heart ache something terrible, so she and Jarvis had retrieved him from school for the week.

Her son returned from school with a runny nose and a bit of a cough from the winter weather, but he was home and still greeted her with a wide smile and wrapped his little body around hers in the biggest hug his little arms could muster. 

Even Howard had seemed relieved to see him, though for whatever reason he refused to show it, mistaking that while they agreed to send their son away for his safety, that didn’t equate to pulling away from him emotionally as well. His mask had slipped a little and he let his son squeeze his legs and placed a stiff hand to the top of his head and ruffled his hair. Then he and Jarvis had been called away for Shield.

The nor’easter that hit New York and surrounding areas after Howard and Jarvis had left them at the mansion had caught residents by surprise. Meteorologists weren’t quite prepared for the severity of precipitation that fell and many had been left woefully underprepared as a consequence. Whiteout conditions were in effect and a staggering 4” fell per hour and with each inch that fell, so did her son’s health. 

He’d developed a fever overnight that kept him lethargic and bed ridden, cheeks rosy red and eyes that were normally so expressive now dull and glassy. Anthony needed a doctor or a hospital, but the nor’easter was in full force, their vehicle already buried under the snow, and no matter how much money they had, no doctor was able to make a house call in these conditions. Instead Maria was alone and had to make do with what she knew. 

Rest she knew was most important, and Anthony rested fitfully throughout the day. Interspersed with these bits of rest she kept him stocked on Vicks Formula 44 (the only cough medicine they had in the house - _“No need to keep these meds when Tony isn’t here,_ ” she heard Howard in her head), herbal tea that he absolutely hated, and Grandma Carbonell’s homemade chicken noodle soup, which he did love, even if his stomach kept bringing it back up throughout the day. Though he had thought he was a little too old for his Mom to be spoon feeding him, but it was a way for Maria to have a semblance of control over the situation.

Maria had been absolutely exhausted. She had barely slept in three days, filling the rest of her and Tony’s days with Italian lullabies or reading from his favorite books (The Velveteen Rabbit had been a favorite at the time, reminding her that no matter how brilliant Anthony was, he was still just a child) her hands gently brushed through his curls or readjusted the cool rag on his forehead. Yet he still hadn’t seemed to be making any progress. If anything he seemed to be deteriorating. She spent the entire night praying to _every_ deity she knew (her Catholic family would have been horrified) in one last act of helpless desperation, for her son to get better or the snow to be cleared so she could get him some help.

Then the fever broke.

The next morning Anthony was weak but smiling and telling jokes, sitting up in the bed taking apart the toaster because he was bored and hadn’t wanted to wake her. Then Howard finally was able to come home with Jarvis and brought the best Shield doctor they had to take over.

Maria felt like she did that first night looking at Anthony now, only this time there was even less that she was able to do to help him. His face was pale and ashen as he twitched in his sleep, every jostle to his injured shoulder causing his face to scrunch up in a painful grimace, a low groan sometimes escaping his lips. There was swelling and bruising to the joint that Howard had shown her when he had adjusted the makeshift sling that came apart during Anthony’s fitful sleep. 

Her son needed a doctor, ice for the swelling, and medicine for the pain. 

Yet Secretary Ross and his goons would give them nothing. 

Thankfully, they did have a little bit of water from the tap in the undignified little area designated as a restroom, but the water only stayed on for a brief moment, allowing barely anytime to collect it at all for drinking or any other uses. Still, she did what she could, using her own undershirt to run under the bursts of water and wipe at the sweat collecting across her son’s face as she sat wedged up beside him on his hip. 

Intellectually, she knows that Anthony had survived through worse and had plenty of scars to prove it, but the difference was that she hadn’t been there for those wounds. Part of the reason she survived so well under Hydra captivity had been due to the small peace of mind that at least her son was somewhere safe. At least he hadn’t been in the car with them that night. 

There was no such luxury here, and grown man or not, it caused her pain to see _him_ in so much pain. 

She felt a strong hand at her shoulder but didn’t even turn towards her husband, content to examine every line on their son’s face. 

“He’ll be okay, sweetheart,” came the steadfast voice behind her shoulder.

“This time maybe. What about next time?” she voiced the quiet fear that had been building since the helicopter landed. “Ross is a lunatic.”

Howard respected her too much to try and ply her with anymore empty platitudes about there not being a next time. She knew that another attack preyed on his mind as well. 

“We’ll figure something out.”

Maria didn’t want to argue so she swiftly changed the subject instead.

“How’s the soup coming along?” she asked, finally turning to face Howard.

Around fifteen minutes ago they’d had their first contact with Ross’ men in hours and while they had still staunchly refused to provide any kind of medical attention, they did provide them with a couple of MRE’s, which were thankfully far and away better than the kind that they had known during World War Two. Or that’s at least what Howard had kept going on about as he had slipped the entrée bags into the green flameless ration heater pouches and activated the heating with the small bursts of water from the sink. Both main courses had been set aside to get heated up and Howard forced her to eat some of the crackers and cheese spread that came with it while he nibbled at some peanuts.

Steam was now steadily rising from both bags and Howard removed his hand from her shoulder to get them. 

“Feels done to me,” he said, rubbing one of the pouches in his hand. “Do you want chicken noodles in vegetable sauce or a bastardized fettuccini alfredo? Actually, I don't know why I even asked," he said, shaking his head and opening the chicken noodle pouch for her. 

"Can you help me wake him?" She asked.

Howard put the other entrée off to the side and took Maria’s now vacated seat beside Tony and gently began to rouse him.

“Tony...Tony,” he mumbled softly until he groggily opened his eyes. “We have food, kid. Probably not the gourmet quality we are all accustomed to but it’ll do,” Howard said, trying to be gentle and encouraging.

“I don't want any,” came the immediate, mumbled response.

“You need it,” Maria cut in and he shook his head.

“No, you both need it more.”

“Lucky for you there’s no need to be so self sacrificing. There’s enough to go around. Let me help you sit up,” Howard said offering Anthony his hand.

Reluctantly he seemed to give in to Howard’s light prodding and let his father help him into a sitting position against the wall. Maria watched as he screwed his eyes tight together and clenched his hand into a fist, covering his mouth.

Howard thankfully understood the look as well as she did. 

“How’s the pain?”

Anthony waited a few more moments to answer, barely daring to take a single breath as he worked through a wave of pain or nausea and swallowed once. “Five or six on pain. It’s the nausea that’s a bitch.”

“That’s what an injury on top of an empty stomach will do,” Howard said, standing back up to let Maria reclaim her position. 

She sat beside him and opened the plastic bag, letting the warm burst of steam release before taking the plastic spoon and mixing the chicken noodles up. It certainly didn’t look like any kind of chicken noodles that she had ever seen before, but as she learned during the war and her forced time with Hydra, beggars couldn’t be choosers. She scooped some of the food up on the spoon and brought it towards Anthony.

His eyes opened back up and he leveled her with an indignant stare. 

“You know I'm right handed?” he offered simply, voice cracking a little from dryness and disuse.

“And?” she responded right back with the same face and tone.

He huffed. “And my right arm is entirely functional, making me plenty strong enough to feed myself. I’m not an invalid.”

“Will you just let your mother take care of you for once? Eat all your food and you’ll get a special treat,” Howard chimed with a friendly mocking voice as he worked the tiny sink into producing enough water for the hot beverage bag the meal kit had come with. The coffee that had been provided in the kit wouldn’t be hot, but at least it was caffeine.

With the promise of better things in store he relented to what Maria was sure was one the more embarrassing moments of his life and let her feed him some of the food. She appreciated it, because much like when he was sick long ago, it made her feel like she had some control in an uncontrollable situation. 

Eating was slow going as he often had to pause between bites to ensure that the food went down. Some of that could be attributed to the injury but not having had anything in a couple of days was enough to make anyone’s stomach sick and queasy. 

True to his word, Howard provided Anthony with a couple drinks of the coffee, but switched to straight water when that proved to be too strong to lay on his empty stomach.

“You should have saved the ration heaters. I probably could have made a nice little surprise for the guards with it,” Anthony lamented, as he finished the chicken noodles and nibbled at a cracker with cheese. 

Howard passed over Maria’s half of the imposter fettuccine and popped in another small handful of peanuts. “The thought had crossed my mind. Food seemed to be the better choice at the moment though.”

Anthony hummed thoughtfully. “Next time.”

“I think you’re both crazy and will probably cause more trouble than it’s worth,” she said, stirring at the offputting food.

“Undoubtedly,” Anthony chuckled beside her. “It may be good to remind them who they’re dealing with though.” 

Maria rolled her eyes good naturedly at her son’s self-assurance. He acted as if they weren’t playing a dangerous game right now with Secretary Ross and his unlimited authority. Any act of aggression would give him enough cause to truly keep them here indefinitely and she hadn’t escaped one prison just to spend her second chance at life stuck in another. 

A sharp hiss emitted from the door lock, snapping her out of her thoughts, she and Howard immediately standing to attention, unconsciously moving their bodies together in a show of protection for their son.

Berenger, the bastard strolled into the room with only one of his men as opposed to the full party from the previous day’s excursion. 

“I just need him today,” he said, pointing past their shoulders to where Anthony was slowly rising to his feet from the cot. 

“What for?” Howard questioned darkly.

“That's none of your concern.”

“It’s fine,” Anthony said, maneuvering between the pair before Howard could pop off with something foolish. Maria brushed her hand across his sleeve as he went and he turned back and offered her a soft smile.

“You may have to help me out here today, I seem to have injured my shoulder somehow,” Anthony spoke again, his voice dripping with sarcasm as he had been presented with handcuffs from the other guard.

Berenger let an uncharacteristic smirk pull at the corner of his stony features as the young guard cuffed him, but at least left the makeshift sling intact.

“Back in a jiffy,” Tony smirked and then the door was shut and the lock reengaged, reminding Maria that whatever control she had tried to assert over the situation was all just an illusion. 

She hadn’t had control over while her son was being assaulted and she definitely didn’t have control over what was going to happen to him now. 

All she could do was pray.

* * *

Ross was waiting for Tony with a smug smile when he was led back into the same interrogation room from the previous day. His hands sat folded together on top of that manila folder again and Tony itched to know the contents. 

“We meet again,” Tony snarked, as the guard connected his cuffs once more to the chain on the table. He placed his hands under the table, reassured when he felt the transmitter still where he left it.

“How are we feeling today? A little more amenable?” Ross asked, eying the makeshift sling with amusement. Tony refused to meet the bastard’s eyes and he quickly continued on. “Now that we've all had time to meditate and cool down, I wanted us to be able to talk alone, man to man. No reason for anymore walls of bravado, no one to act brave for. We all know what kind of man you are underneath, so let’s get down to it.”

Tony huffed. “You have no idea who I am, Ross.”

“It doesn’t have to be like this. Did I not show you enough good faith by accommodating you all with your meals? What are you hoping to gain by holding out, Stark? Do you think that stalling me is really in your best interests?” Ross asked, pointing out Tony’s wounded arm.

“I'm not afraid of you,” he responded immediately, a defiant sneer plastered over his face in response to Ross’ smug expression.

“Oh you don't have to be afraid. You just have to understand that nothing is going to change for your family until I have what I want.”

Of course it wouldn’t. Men like Ross liked to believe that they held all the cards but it was that very arrogance that was going to lead to his downfall.

“Which is what exactly?”

“Depends. Are you finally ready to negotiate a deal?”

“I'm ready to cut through the bullshit,” Tony said, his voice raising slightly as he sat up in the chair, leaning towards Ross as intimidatingly as he could manage in handcuffs. “This has _never_ been about Bruce or Spiderman. In fact I'm willing to bet that you know that _I know_ what you've really been doing under the table and that's why you're trying so hard to shut me up.”

He let his words hang heavy over the room and watched with satisfaction as Ross’ face lost that smugness, his brow slightly narrowing as he considered Tony’s words. 

Ross looked towards where Berenger stood statuesquely in the corner of the room and made a gesture of dismissal, waiting until the other man was gone from the room before turning back to Tony, deadly serious.

“What do you think you know?”

Tony countered his question with one of his own. “How long have you been backing Adrian Toomes' operation?”

Ross chuckled darkly. “How long have I? You mean you, right?”

Finally Ross opened his folder and pulled out newspaper clippings, internet articles, all with similar headlines and photos leading the stories, showing Tony as he entered and exited the salvage location, all insinuating the return of the Merchant of Death. 

“Me? Really? Do you think anyone is going to believe these conspiracies?”

“They already have,” he said and turned the papers over, showing a raid taking place and the alien weapons being removed. “Why else would you, billionaire Tony Stark, have been visiting this salvage yard, which might I add, was just raided yesterday and found to be storing tons of illegal, stolen tech, if you didn’t have some sort of hand in the production?”

“You can't prove anything with a picture other than you were unlawfully following me.”

“The Accords, remember? All thanks to the reinstatement clause.”

“Of my counterparts, maybe. As I’ve discussed before, not only am I on vacation, but I am also not one of the Avengers that any probationary rules would be applied to.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but it does well to swing the court of public opinion.” 

“You'll only be hurting your business partner when the press really digs in and finds out whose property that is.”

“Funny,” Ross said, pulling out some paperwork this time from the folder and holding it in front of him as he spoke. “I have records stating that the property was sold in 2012 after nearly folding from bankruptcy. You'll never guess who owns that property now… the Department of Damage Control. Your baby. What do you think the public will deduce then?”

Tony eyed the papers in Ross’ hand wearily. “No such record exists.” 

Ross slid the stack of papers across the table to Tony and he eagerly perused the doctored papers.

“Looks to me like you're finding yourself between a rock and a hard place,” Ross said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head. 

“This is cute, Ross,” Tony said as he thumbed through the papers. “Do you really think that this will hold up in the real world when we can provide the real documentation?”

“Who is to say these records aren’t already listed and backdated in DODC filings?”

“I'll ask you again. What do you really want?” Tony countered.

Ross sat back up in his seat and leaned across the table, his eyes intense and glaring. “I want the peace of mind back that you stole from my men. Do you know how many of our soldiers died after you stopped manufacturing weapons for them?”

“Do you know how many innocents died because of my weapons?” Tony challenged him back. He would never regret stopping weapons production. It had been the right decision then and it was the right decision now. “Don’t act like I completely abandoned your men. I fulfilled my end of the deal and made kevlar, shields, better roadside bombing detection equipment and all other manner of defensive technology.”

Ross slammed his fist on the table, the sound reverberating all around them. “Which all meant nothing when they had Hammertech backing them up.”

“That is a grievance that should be raised with the government for not properly vetting your contractors work before signing them,” he responded with a quiet seriousness. 

Ross composed himself again, standing up straight and readjusting his navy suit. “This is why I knew we instead had to create better weapons, better soldiers.”

Suddenly the pieces began to start to connect back in place. 

“Like you made Emil Blonsky a better soldier?” He referenced the Abomination that was in part the reason why the Hulk had helped destroy half of Harlem several years back. More testing of yet another bastardized super soldier formula coming back to bite the world in the ass.

If Ross was thrown by the mention of his failure, he gallantly did not let it show. “Blonsky was a fool and an outlier. He would have been fine but he got greedy, drunk on power.”

“Hm. Sounds familiar.”

“Hardly.”

“So, what then? You saw an opening to have better weapons with Toomes and better yet, no government oversight because you are the government in this case. Did you approach him first when you knew what he could do?”

Now they were finally getting somewhere. He just needed a little more. A little admission of what he was doing. Ross’ cold steely eyes met Tony’s and held his gaze, challenging him. Letting him know that he knew his game. Whatever hopes he had before slowly began to fizzle out. 

“I think that’s enough from you today.”

“Then answer me this last…” Tony called as he started to turn away. “Your vendetta with me I understand, but why drag my family into it?”

“Your family that was resurrected from the grave?”

Maybe a little bit of truth would help. “Held by Hydra you mean.”

Tony studied Ross’ face carefully, his eyes narrowing as he searched for any sign of shock or surprise, even just a twitch of his jaw to indicate that this was new, unexpected information to the man. 

There was nothing. Tony’s stomach dropped. 

“No, don’t tell me you’re…”

Ross chuckled and shook his head. “No, I’m not. Let’s just say that Hydra squandered an opportunity with your father that’s too good to be passed up.”

Of course. Better weapons. Better soldiers. Back to basics it seemed with another grab for the super soldier formula and what better than having the man who successfully helped develop it before, back in the lab creating it? Really, these bad guys were getting repetitive. Didn’t villains these days have any sort of originality?

“He won’t help you. He didn’t then and he won’t now.”

“He will. Call it a hunch.”

“Are you really ready to bet all your chips on a hunch?”

“Of course I am. I have the one thing that Hydra didn’t.” Ross paused for effect, a sickening smile playing over his lips as he pointed. “You.”

The door opened and Berenger returned, this time with Howard in tow. Ross cleared the table of the papers and file. “Did you explain our situation Lieutenant?”

“I did, sir,” he said, cuffing Howard to where Ross had been sitting previously.

“Good. Then you know what to do,” he said, pulling a cigar from his inside pocket and inhaling the smell of the aged tobacco. “Take your time. Draw it out...but don’t stop until he agrees to help.”

“Tony…” Howard started but Tony shook his head and cut him off.

“Don’t break.”

He could endure whatever he needed to. The information he had drawn from Ross would go a long way in helping his case and so would the information that Friday had to have found by now. He just needed to hold out for a little longer.

He ignored the sound of Ross’ laughter as he lit his cigar and took a couple puffs before leaving them behind in the room and whatever Berenger had in store for them.

* * *

Friday watched as Ross exited the room, puffing away at his cigar in smug satisfaction, a grin covering his face. She wished that there was something that she could do to wipe that smile off of his face but she didn’t have access to her normal arsenal of tools, namely the suit. 

Instead she kept pace with his strides, crawling high atop the wall so as not to be spotted. After a couple of turns he came to a stop at an elevator that he needed a key to turn to make it operational. She scanned the upcoming car and confirmed that it had come from the mysterious bottom floor.

She wished that instead of the elevator car that the shaft would be empty and Ross would step out into nothingness for the pain that he was causing.

Boss was right. She was too human at times.

The doors beeped open and Ross stepped inside, Friday following behind him just as the doors began to close. 

Ross continued to puff away at the cigar and pulled out his phone. Friday scanned it wondering if maybe he was speaking to a secure contact but instead a game of Candy Crush came up. If Friday had eyes they’d be rolling in the back of her head by now.

Finally the elevator came to a stop and they each exited. 

The floor outwardly looked very similar to all the others except that there were large viewing windows into each. 

Friday monitored and recorded each one that they went by, able to detect what seemed like a medical suite that looked prepped and ready with a lot of unidentifiable equipment, just waiting for a surgical team of some sort to come swooping in. 

Another environment she recognized as being the specialized cell that Wanda Maximoff had been put into, one of the hi-tech collars still laying in wait for the next prisoner. 

Ross continued along, the rooms fewer between now, but the ones they did pass actually had people in them. Scientists from what Friday could make out, all running experiments and documenting results, but from what? To what purpose?

Ross opened the final door with a touch of his palm at the scanner and at last Friday had found the office. It was filled with thick, large filing cabinets on one side of the room and a separate server system on the other. Exactly what Colonel Rhodes suspected. 

As the secretary kept his attention plastered to the bright colors of his phone, flopping down into a leather chair and alternating between smoke and Candy Crush, Friday fluttered down from the wall and towards the nearest port. 

She remembered the Colonel’s words as she began connecting herself into the new network. Check for ghost drives first, starting with the lowest numerical heading. There hadn't been any on the other servers but she hoped as much as an AI could that this would turn out differently. 

This was their last chance to make this part of the mission work.

* * *

Tony had begun to lose all track of time, not that he had much of a grasp on it before. It could have been days or hours or even minutes since the last time that asshole Berenger had gone on the attack.

Tony had to hand it to him though, he had a very simplistic vision of what torture could be. He wasn’t sloppy like the Ten Rings had been with their waterboarding, and inadvertent shocks dealt to his chest cavity by the primitive RT. No, he worked with sadistic purpose. 

His arm of course would be the biggest target. It was a weak point, already damaged by his previous assault with the night stick. He didn’t have to use any weapons this time, the joint already bruised and swollen and even before the attack was probably just barely healed from when he got a dozen cars dropped on top of him. He would describe that as a pleasant experience when in comparison to the twisting and turning and pushing against the battered limb. 

He might have yelled. Maybe he cried. He couldn’t remember. 

Yet each time Berenger stopped to ask his father if he had seen enough, his mind would snap to attention and listen to the quiet fury in his voice as he repeated the same phrase over and over. 

“I refuse.”

Then there would be some new kind of pain. Never at the face after that first day on the Raft or on any area that couldn’t be covered by his clothing. Always directed towards his ribs or a punishing kidney shot, though only on rare occasions. He didn’t think that Ross would want him to start bleeding internally. 

He knew that Berenger left occasionally. Again, whether for minutes or hours, Tony couldn’t decipher, his mind foggy with pain. 

Howard would try and talk to him. Try and beg him to let him make this stop. To give in. Tony wouldn’t let him. It went against the plan. 

Friday would find the incriminating info. Rhodey would get it to T’Challa who was standing by with the UN and would bring his case before them along with all the evidence they had against Ross. Toomes’ downfall would work in tandem and Ross would be buried. 

He just had to make it through this. 

It wouldn’t be long. 

He would come out of this looking like a bruised banana but the job would be done. The day would be saved. 

Just a little longer.

Then again, what if his plan didn’t work?

What if Toomes didn’t take the bait? What if Friday found nothing? What if his stupid transmitter wasn’t even able to get the signal out of the thickened Raft walls and across the ocean, signal bouncing off into the dead space like his father’s signal bounced off the mountains in Siberia. 

No. It didn't work like that.

Besides, he had to believe this would work. 

Another pause in the attack. Another question. 

“I refuse.”

The plan would work.

* * *

It was Friday night and Rhodey couldn’t take it any longer. 

He had forwarded all of the recordings from Ross and Tony’s conversation to T’Challa but the King had informed him that regrettably the conversation as it stood would not be enough to get the UN on their side. They needed the hard tangible proof to back up the claims, the files that so far did not exist anywhere but in Tony Stark’s mind. 

The Avengers were also up his ass on what was happening with Tony and he had already had to shut off the audio entirely whenever Pepper came into the room, insisting that there was nothing new to be told, as opposed to letting her hear her fiance get the tar beat out of him.

At the very least she had hit a grand slam with the Oped penned by Christine Everhart, the general public that had been on the fence about how the elderly Stark’s had survived, moved to tears by their trials and tribulations, and angered that their second chance for peace had been ripped away from them. Crowds gathered outside of SI in droves with signs and chants of support. They called the media out for their biased coverage and demanded that the government and Secretary Ross specifically tell them what had happened to the Stark Family, and why they had been charged with what they had been.

Ross anticipated as much and dropped falsified documents that tried to connect the DODC to the alien weapons, showing footage of Tony at the salvage yard and pictures of the aftermath of weapon usage within city limits but the public hadn’t bought it. 

Now they were forty-five minutes away from Toomes going after the carefully crafted Avengers bait that was currently rigged with tracking devices and cameras and more beneath the copy cat useless gear. By the time that he figured out he had been had, he would already be under arrest, courtesy of Tony’s FBI contact.

He just had to get through this. 

Another round of torture for his friend as he just listened along, completely unable to do anything to to help him except hope that he knew that Rhodey was there with him every step of the way. 

“Colonel Rhodes, I have it.”

Rhodey sat up straight and muted the muffled cries of his best friend. 

“Please tell me you’re talking about what I think you are…” he said trying not to get his hopes up too high.

“I have the incriminating information. It was buried behind firewalls and multiple encryptions, that’s why it took so long for me to uncover it. In addition to information on Wanda Maximoff, it appears that Secretary Ross has been practicing multiple illegal experimentations on soldiers, continuing his work with the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project.”

“I thought that got shut down after the Hulk and Abomination took out Harlem.”

“It was. Or at least that was what was believed to have happened. It looks like Ross never stopped, just moved the project to the Raft and out of the public sphere. Based on these files the project has claimed the lives of at least twenty-one individuals who have all died after being given different permutations of the serum. All records are now being transferred.”

A list of files, pictures, project notes, unaccounted for DOD money trails all popped up on the holograph as they were transferred to the Stark Network. It was more than they could have hoped for, more damning even than anything they could get from Toomes though they still needed to take him off the streets before he had a chance to go underground. 

“Friday, baby, I love you,” he said, with the first smile that had crossed his worn face in a week. “Get this to T’Challa and put the Avengers on stand by for extraction.”

“Already on it, Colonel.”

“Just a little longer, Tones,” he sighed, and covered his face.

Then Rhodey’s phone began to ring. He pulled it out of his pocket but was met with an UNKNOWN caller. This was a Stark phone. He never got unknown callers, they were always automatically filtered and blocked to prevent spam and robo calls. It did come with a 718 area code so they were local...then it hit him. It could be Queens...Peter Parker.

“Parker is that you?” he asked, accepting the call as quick as he could before they hung up. 

“Uhhh. Mr. Colonel Rhodes...uh War Machine, sir?”

The trembling voice was on the young side but it definitely wasn’t Peter’s normally boisterous tone. 

“Who is this and how did you get this number?” he demanded. If Peter gave out his number then they were going to be having some serious problems.

“Uh, sorry sir, this is Ned, Peter's friend, or you know his guy in the chair…”

“His what?”

“Yeah you know the one doing all the actual hard work and providing all the support so our superheroes can hero? Like you're Iron Man’s guy in the chair!”

“Is that supposed to be some kind of joke?” Rhodey asked, just to make the kid squirm a little.

Ned was immediately apologetic. “No, no, no, that’s not- I didn’t mean- you’re like my second favorite Avenger, no disrespect was meant at all..”

“Okay, okay, I believe you, now why are you calling me?”

“Right, Mr. War Machine, Peter told me to tell you that he knows where the Vulture guy is going to be tonight and that he was going to stop him. He said he's going to try and hijack the rest of the Avengers stuff going upstate tonight on some plane.”

“Yes, we know that, it's a plant. What do you mean he's going after him?! He doesn't even have a suit!” Rhodey shouted, his heart beginning to pound in his chest.

_ Damn it Parker, I told you not to do anything stupid. _

“Yeah, he does, he has his old one,” Ned answered as if Rhodey was being purposefully obtuse.

“The onesie?!”

Rhodey had seen the early Spiderman videos right after Tony had taken such an interest in the kid. That was no suit. The kid was going to get himself killed.

“I think it's sweats, actually.”

“We’re not debating this. Where is he now? Tell him not to go.”

“Oh, he already left. I can send you some coordinates though.”

“Tell him not to engage this guy, you got it? He's going to get himself killed. “

“I can try, sir, but he seems pretty set on this.”

“I know. I know. God you guys are killing me,” he said running a hand through his graying hair. He was going to be completely gray between Tony and the kid. Neither one of them had a lick of common sense or self preservation. “Just text me what you know and I'll figure something out.” 

“Wait, are you going to call the Avengers?”

“I am the Avengers,” he said, and hung up on the boy. He shook his head a couple of times and tried to think about his options.  “Shit, what am I going to do Fri?” 

He didn’t have a suit anymore and the ones that Tony had around were all in pieces from where he had been working some final upgrades and still only were coded for him. Not that Rhodey was even sure that he could even pilot a suit with or without his braces. The braces were great for walking around but they were still bulkier than what his previous suit would allow. And if he had to admit it, he was maybe even a little afraid to pilot it. He hadn’t been conscious for the actual crash into the ground, but he would never get the feeling of freefalling in a hunk of dead metal out of his mind ever again. He still suffered nightmares over it. 

Even worse. He often suffered mental battles as to whether he was even still worthy and qualified enough to pilot a suit. He was working on it with his therapist still, but there were days that he wasn’t sure if he was cut out for this life any longer.

“Boss did leave behind a contingency for emergencies, remember?” Friday’s voice filled the room and shook him out of his negative thoughts. Her voice was soft and gentle like she could read his mind, and hell maybe she could by now. With Tony he wouldn’t doubt it. 

“Would you like for me to bring up 21-A?”

“Why not?” he stood up from his seat and stretched, the braces whirring about as he moved. “Let's see what the idiot left me.”

Rhodey wasn’t sure what he expected. Perhaps a suit that Friday could pilot, or that he could remote pilot like the disaster that was Mark 42. Hell, he even expected to be met with the kid’s newest Spider-suit that he knew Tony had been secretly working on for months.

Instead, the floor opened up to reveal a sleek, charcoal black, fully assembled War Machine armor. Emblazoned on the shoulder pieces was his rank and the air force emblem and further down on the back of of the right arm was ‘Mark 6.’

It was beautiful. 

It seemed both leaner and bulkier than the previous model, the weapons no longer fixed to his back but looked like they came out of a compartment. He ran his hands up and down the suit and jumped when Friday opened it for him. It opened much like Tony’s suit did now, all of the pieces pulling apart and separating so the user could just step right in.

“Boss, made some upgrades,” Friday said, and the leg panels lit up red. “The suit is fully functional and compatible with your leg braces Colonel. He’s already done extensive testing to ensure that there is still plenty of responsiveness and no accidental maneuvers.”

“You sonavabitch,” he mumbled the words all together, his hand going to cover his mouth. 

“Boss has also installed a temporary AI compatible with your suit only for precautionary measures until you get used to piloting the new interface.”

here he was, panicking over what he was going to do when Tony had already thought of everything, and in a way that wasn't distrustful of his abilities post injury, but rather meant to help him embrace them for the long haul. 

“He’s thought of everything, huh? My own AI…” 

It was too much and just perfect all at once. He had never really wanted an AI before, always trusting his own instincts over Tony’s creation no matter how advanced they may be. The thought of flying with one now though...it felt right. Comfortable even. If he couldn’t get the job done, then the AI could.

“Boss has also created multiple safeguards and redundancies to prevent the damaging of the RT. Should it become damaged in battle, there is a backup system that is able to take over until the suit can be safely landed.”

Rhodey listened to Friday selling him on all of the upgraded features that he knew had haunted Tony as much as they had haunted him. Tony wasn’t going to make the same mistakes twice, he knew.

That’s when he saw it.

A small yellow Post-It note with Tony’s chicken scratch handwriting that Rhodey could only decipher after spending three decades with the man. 

It read…

_ Parachute’s in the back...How is this for a funvee? We need you War Machine _

_ T--- _

Rhodey smiled, and he felt the overwhelming panic of moments before starting to ebb. He  _ was  _ War Machine and no accident could take that away from him, and better even, his best friend had his back, fixing the radical flaws that they so unfortunately had to discover. 

If Tony thought he could buy him off with a new suit every time that he did something stupid and reckless…

Well...it might work...a little.

“Okay,” he said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, before slowly stepping into the armor, relishing the feeling of it cocooning all around him. As stated the braces fit perfectly against the modified boots and he tested out the range of movement. It all felt natural. Or as natural as it could be inside of a giant metal suit.

“Let’s go kick some ass,” he smiled, and let the War Machine helmet cover his face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's a better cliff hanger right? Positive? Uplifting?
> 
> Also as a result of this chapter I now follow a guy on youtube that buys and eats old MRE's. Don't ask. lol
> 
> See ya next monday!!! Let me know what you're thinking!!!


	32. The Rescue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Tuesday everyone. First I wanted to start with, we have almost found the end. NEXT chapter is it folks. :O I can't believe it either. As a reminder I will be keeping this universe open for prompts if you have anything that you'd like to see and I already have a couple of oneshot continuations completed that I have teased on the 12-16-91-Stark tumblr page. You don't want to miss them so follow me there or subscribe to me here to know when they get posted!
> 
> Secondly, I am sorry if this gets a bit exposition-y towards the end or rushed feeling. I have been battling a terrible flu bug (non-covid) and just feel like complete crap today, so I apologize in advance. Next chapter everyone will have their moments, more one on one time between Tony and the elder Starks specifically, as well as the other cast.
> 
> In that vain, I'm sorry if I haven't responded to your review from last chapter yet, see above, and know that I have read them all and absolutely adore you guys. You all have kept me going the last nine months and you all mean so much to me whether you just started reading or have been here from the start. I love you all. Stay safe and let me know what you think in the comments down below.

Being in the suit for the first time in almost four months was a little nerve wracking. Tony in all of his manic perfectionism had made sure the new suit was as user friendly as possible and truly it maneuvered like a dream, still Rhodey felt his throat tightening every time he climbed further in altitude, the image of crashing into the city down below him a constant fear. He had to swallow the fear and press on though, Peter needed his help.

Having the new AI helped a lot. Unlike Friday or even Jarvis, Jocasta was more subdued, more of a background guide than constant companion but she had a sweet matronly like voice, perhaps a little more robotic than the others. After providing his initial crash course in operating the new suit, Rhodey was able to take control of all the main functions and Jocasta only intervened when he really needed it. It was enough for him to be comfortable with, like having someone guiding him in the tower when he was still in flight school so many years ago. 

Jocasta illustrated a flight pattern for him to take to get to the location Ned had sent to him, the location he realized had been the very same salvage operation Tony had been to about a week ago now. The same one that Ross was weakly trying to link Tony to. 

He tried Peter's phone a few times along the way, each attempt going straight to voicemail as he feared. He really hoped the phone was just dead and that was why its owner was not responding, and not anything worse. That hope quickly dwindled as he came across what had once been a building, as he made his shaky landing onto the debris down below. 

“Shit...PETER???” he called out. “Jocasta, give me a scan of the area, search for any signs of life.”

The display in his suit lit up as the grounds were scanned, Rhodey feeling an anxious twinge in his gut as nothing was coming up.

“No active signs of life found,” Jocasta concluded.

“Shit…”

Rhodey started walking around the remnants of what used to be the building, searching for any sign that Peter or Toomes might have made a stop here. Then he came to a section of wreckage and debris that seemed to have been disturbed from the rest, a large gap devoid of carnage. He bent down and Jocasta automatically started scanning the wreckage and then zeroed in on something on one of the beams. 

“Is that blood?” Rhodey asked, closing in and examining it. 

“Yes. Evidence suggests that this blood has a different genetic coding to it like…”

“Like an enhanced Spiderboy,” Rhodey finished. “Damn it, where are you, Pete?”

Just when he finished one last sweep of the area and made sure that Peter wasn’t trapped somewhere beneath the building, a loud, obnoxious noise started blaring through his speakers. It took a moment to identify what it was, but when he did he sighed and rolled his eyes as the phone call popped up on his screen.

Tony had set his ringtone to be War Machine by AC/DC. That idiot thought he was so clever.

“Incoming call from Happy Hogan,” Jocasta added helpfully.

“Answer call,” he said, trying hard to keep the exasperated smirk from his face. This was no time to be smiling. Peter was missing and possibly injured. 

“Rhodes? Rhodes you there? I hate this new stupid phone,” Happy whined and Rhodes could hear buttons being pressed and the shuffle of movement in the background.

“Hap- I’m here Happy, what’s going on?”

“Oh finally,” he muttered, “just letting you know that the last of the decoy material has been loaded onto the plane and is taking off in the next...two minutes.”

“Good work. Any sign of Toomes or the kid?”

“The kid? What do you mean the kid? I didn’t know he was in on this.”

“He’s not. Peter went rogue, he’s trying to bring this guy in himself, have you heard from him?”

“No, I don't think so. God, Tony is going to kill us if we lose that kid.”

“Well, there’s only one other place he’d be right now…” Rhodey said, looking in the direction of the tower and the bait they had set for Toomes. “On my way back.”

He hung up with Happy and with a little more confidence in his ability, took off once more to try and find Peter.

* * *

“And just how exactly was all of this information acquired?” 

The senior member of the UN Accords panel adjusted his wiry glasses on his nose as he perused the information before him lazily, flipping through the corners of the pages and scanning quickly over photographs. It was enough for T’Challa to almost break a tooth with how tightly set his jaw was. They had been running around in circles for nearly an hour now.

“It was first brought to my attention following an attempted raid on Wakanda. My people followed up and we were able to find out what Secretary Ross is really up to. In light of the information provided I would like to suggest the immediate removal from this panel and arrest of the Secretary, in cooperation with the United States government.”

“Why were we not informed sooner of this raid?” the old man questioned, his eyes now fixated on the King’s own.

Inwardly T’Challa was screaming at the incompetence he had been shown thus far. “We were not sure if it was connected until now. I’d also like to arrange for the extraction of detainees, Howard Stark, Maria Stark, and Anthony Stark now that it has been proven that they were arrested either unjustifiably, or as part of a conspiracy to cover up the Secretary’s own misdeeds.”

The panel all began to look back and forth between each other, murmuring and looking at all the evidence that T’Challa had provided them with. They didn’t have time for all of this indecision. Lives were at stake. For once the King thought he understood Steve Rogers position on the Accords even if he still ultimately believed in them for the greater good. 

“Has President Ellis been briefed on this material?” the senior member asked one of his compatriots beside him on his cell phone. The man put a hand over the mouthpiece and nodded vigorously, speaking something softly into the other man’s ear. He pulled a pinched face but sighed and turned back to give T’Challa his full attention.

“King T’Challa, pending a full investigation, Secretary Ross will be suspended from the full Accords panel. In his place, President Ellis has approved for the Avengers to assist in the arrest of the Secretary and the removal of the Stark family from the RAFT.”

Relief was visible across the young King’s face. “Thank you for your understanding and prompt response on the matter,” he said with enough charm that he was sure the senior member was unable to detect any of the sarcasm in his words. 

The panel dismissed and T’Challa pulled out his phone and hit the speed dial option. The phone was quickly answered. 

“Captain? The Avengers are cleared for extraction.”

* * *

By the time Rhodey finally made it to the plane, Spiderman and Toomes were already engaged in a heavy battle, as one of the plane’s engines exploded and broke away, flying right at him. He easily evaded the wreckage and said a prayer of thanks that the kid seemed to be fine. 

The Vulture made another pass for where Peter was clinging to the edge of the plane and Rhodey lifted his palm. “Jocasta, change to stun wave.”

The change was made and the repulsor beam turned to a wave of energy that hit the back of the Vulture like a burst of wind, the force sending him careening forward and far from Peter.

“Colonel Rhodes, sir!” the boy called out to him and regained his balance on the plane. “I found the Vulture.”

Rhodey laughed. “I see that. I thought I asked you not to do anything stupid?”

“To be fair, sir, you said to go to school and I did, and then my girlfriend’s dad turned out to be the bad guy and I couldn’t just let him go. That’s why I had Ned call you, sir!! Maybe we could talk about this later?” he called out over the wind. Luckily Jocasta was able to amplify and isolate his voice for Rhodey to hear.

“Agreed.”

“Hey where’s--” Peter flapped his hands in the air, imitating a bird.

“Rigggght,” Rhodey did a quick scan to see where the Vulture had scattered off to and found him carving a hold out of the top of the plane, trying to get to the goods inside. “Oh, no you don’t.”

Rhodey flew towards the Vulture’s prone figure and punched at the man’s wings, opting to use a hand to hand style so as not to damage the plane further. The Vulture struck back out at him with one wing and he dodged to avoid it and then hit the man with the gauntlet, laying him out on his back as he clung to the hole in the plane. 

“Uhhh Colonel Rhodes!!” Peter shouted as they burst through a patch of clouds and the skyline of the city emerged.

“I see it!” he called back out and took one look at Toomes before electing to leave him to his own devices for now. The plane was losing altitude at an alarming rate, bringing this plane down safely would have to be the main priority. “Okay...okay we need to turn this quickly!”

“I’m on it!” Peter said, shooting a web out and pulling. 

Rhodey flew out in front of the plane and took a deep breath. “Okay, guess we are testing the strength of this suit the hard way…” he muttered and reached out to grab a hold of the nose, pushing as hard as he could to get it to turn. 

The plane groaned and sparked beneath the force of the suit and Peter’s intervention, narrowly missing skyscrapers and tower antennas. They made the turn successfully but the stealth plane only was picking up more speed as it lost altitude. Rhodey had to remind himself to breathe as he held on, trying like hell to slow it down and not think about crashing to the ground.

“H-hey Colonel Rhodes, you ever been to Coney Island?” Peter’s voice shouted from somewhere behind him. 

“What?” He turned his head back and saw then what Peter was talking about. Coney Island was fast approaching and so was miles of beach. Jocasta scanned the beachfront quickly and detected that anyone out this late was far away from their trajected crash site. “Good call, Pete!”

Rhodey shifted his position to the wing that Peter was holding on to his web with as the sandy shores rapidly approached. He reached out and grabbed the kid under his arms. “Let go, Peter, I’ve got you.” The boy let go of the web and Rhodey pulled them back a safe distance in the air as the plane crashed unassisted into the stretch of beach, large chunks breaking away and exploding, leaving a debris trail at least a mile long.

Slowly Rhodey descended onto the beach and let Peter go, opening his helmet up to survey the damage more clearly. The boy ripped the mask from his face as well, wide eyes sweeping over the carnage. He didn’t look too bad all things considered but his nose was bleeding and there were minor cuts and bruises around his face. Bruised but whole, thankfully. 

“Where’s Toomes?” Peter asked quietly, his voice raspy from shouting.

As soon as Rhodey turned his head to look with the boy a blur jumped out through the smoke, connecting with Rhodey’s chest and sending him flying backwards. He recovered quickly but Toomes was already after Peter. 

“Hey, Pedro,” he heard Toomes say as he rushed towards Peter again with his large wings sparking behind him. Peter evaded the attack but Toomes came right back at him, using his large claw to hold Peter’s chest down into the sand while he punched him. 

Rhodey jumped back into the fray, spearing the bastard off of him as they tumbled onto the beach and rolled. Vulture recovered first and stabbed at the suit with his wings. Rhodey dodged and hit him back with a repulsor, blowing the man back several feet. 

“My fight isn’t with you!” Toomes shouted, and slowly began rising back into the air. 

Peter shot his web at the man and yanked to pull him back down and Toomes growled and flew higher, Peter using the web as a bungee cord to bounce high in the air over his head and landing a strike to his back and then bouncing back up again and hitting his face. As he came back down Toomes was ready and grabbed the boy with his claws and drove him down hard into the beach. 

“Son of a bitch,” Rhodey regained his footing and fired more blasts at the man. He still didn’t want to kill him, they needed him for Tony, and he really tried to avoid unnecessary casualties, especially in front of the kid, but he did want to make him hurt like hell. 

The blasts connected with his wings, blowing further holes into them and causing them to spark and short out in places. One final blast knocked him backwards into the crates from the fiery wreckage.

“Peter, you okay?” Rhodey asked coming to his aid as he struggled to get up. 

Peter coughed a few times and wiped at his eyes that were watering from all of the smoke. “-m’okay...just a little woozy,” he mumbled, and Rhodey offered him a hand to stand up, which he gratefully accepted.

The whirring of the Vulture’s wings sounded back up and they both turned towards the noise to see the Vulture hovering, trying to carry one of the crates of Avenger’s goods in his talons. His wings vibrated with electrical energy, the sparks flying as he slowly climbed higher. 

“No, wait!” Peter shouted, jumping into action and shooting a web at the crate and pulling back at him. 

“Sorry, Pete, time to go home!” Toomes called out and cut the webbing.

“I’m trying to save you!!!” Peter yelled, back and tried shooting his web again but his canisters, the older homemade models, were empty.

“Peter, it’s okay,” Rhodey said, grabbing at the boy. “It was all a decoy, there’s nothing but fakes in those crates and he can’t get far.”

“No, no! His wings are going to explode!!” he said, clawing at Rhodey’s suit as he tried to pull him back. 

Rhodey looked up to Toomes and saw what he meant but by then it was too late. A spark on the man’s wings caught and they exploded sending him and the crate plummeting to the ground. 

“No, no, not like this,” Peter mumbled and broke away from Rhodey, ignoring his cries to stop as he ran through the wall of fire.

The helmet of the War Machine armor closed back over Rhodey’s face and he flew forward through the wall of fire after Peter, Jocasta scanning and labeling the boy and Toomes in his feed. Peter already had Toomes in a fireman's carry as Rhodey swooped in to grab them both and take them a safe distance down the beach, away from the worst of the fire. 

Rhodey dropped Toomes and carefully placed Peter down, both of them coughing and covered in soot. Toomes groaned but was not getting back up this time and Peter dropped down onto his butt.

“What is it about you and Tony running headfirst into danger without thinking? If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear you idiots are related!” Fond exasperation laced his words though and made Peter chuckle before breaking out into another coughing fit. “Right let’s get you out of here, you probably have all kinds of smoke inhalation damage.”

“What did you mean it was a decoy?” Peter asked, gingerly between fits.

Rhodey sighed and opened his helmet again so he could look the kid in the eye and knelt beside him. “It was a set up. When we found out Toomes was after the technology we switched the real goods out with some fakes so we could catch him in the act. I told you we had it taken care of.”

Peter groaned and flopped back into the sand. “So, this was all for nothing?”

This time Rhodey chuckled. “Not quite. You showed a lot of heart out there kid. Let's get this wrapped up and get you checked out by medical.”

“You think he’ll confess?” Peter asked about Toomes involvement with Ross.

“If he wants to save his skin, I don’t think he has a choice.”

* * *

“Sir, this isn’t working. He isn’t responding like we hoped,” Berenger stated, standing at attention before Secretary Ross’ desk. 

“I guess I underestimated what a cold bastard Howard Stark could be,” Ross sighed.

“You knew him before, sir?”

“Not directly, I was no one important then, still a young Sargent, but he had a certain reputation in military circles. Guess it wasn’t all just hearsay,” he leaned back into his chair and steepled his fingers as he tried to think of a new course of action. “Get the wife and put her in there too. See if she’ll be able to convince him to agree to help---”

The alarm in Ross’ office set off at that moment, red flashing light accompanying the deafening sound. His eyes went wide and he turned his attention to the security cameras and had to do a double take when he saw what looked to be one of the Avengers quinjets, hovering around the landing pad. 

“What the hell is going on here...Don’t let them get to Stark!” he shouted and jumped up from the chair. 

What the hell were the Avengers doing here? How did they even know this location? Stark must have done something. He didn’t know what but he had a feeling this was not going to end well.

* * *

“Tony...Tony...c’mon get up...something’s happening...”

The voice called out to Tony from the void along with some buzzing maybe? Everything sounded muffled and distorted like he was under water and it was hard to decipher what was going on in his surroundings. He tried to answer the voice but all he could elicit was a groan, unable to string together any kind of form of coherent speech. The buzzing got louder and as it did so did the voice.

“TONY!”

Slowly, he felt the fog beginning to clear away, the muffled cries growing clearer and as they did, so did the buzzing. He gasped as his body suddenly jolted back to consciousness, trying to remember where he was and what was happening as his eyes darted across the room, finally landing on his father’s concerned gaze.

“Howard?” he mumbled, “wha’s happen’in?”

“I don’t know, I was hoping you’d know. They just started sounding.”

Tony desperately tried to rack his mind as he still tried to place where and when he was located. The pain he had been blissfully unaware of in his dreams was all starting to come back and his body felt achy and bruised all over. He had to slow his breathing down when each breath he took felt like a sharp stabbing pain in the middle of his chest. Bruised ribs then...at least.

The buzzing. What was the buzzing? An alarm? But for what? Maybe they were sinking like a sad demented version of the Titanic. Or maybe it was like a burglar alarm and there were intruders, but how? They were out in the middle of the ocean somewhere.

Then it clicked.

Tony closed his eyes and chuckled, the grin only faltering slightly when the pain spiked in his chest again. “The Avengers are here…” he laughed. “It worked.”

Howard’s brow remained tight knitted as he stared at Tony, unsure whether to believe him or if he was suffering still through a bout of delirium. Tony didn’t care. His crazy plan had actually worked. 

“You didn’t give ‘em anything did ya?”

“C’mon,” Howard replied, having the audacity to actually look insulted, like withstanding the torture of your child was just something that one should be able to do. 

The door to the interrogation room burst open, slamming all the way back against the wall and leaving a mark. 

A red faced infuriated Ross came stomping through the room with Berenger and a litany of other guards behind him. Howard sat up straighter in his chair on full alert as the guards fanned out around them. 

“What did you do?!” Ross shouted, his face close enough to Tony’s that he felt the droplets of saliva hit his cheek.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’ve been sitting in this room the whole time. How long has it been now?”

The unexpected backhand whipped his head in the other direction and he heard rather than saw Howard yank at the chains as he tried to get loose to no avail. 

“What did you do?!” Ross shouted again. 

“I’ve done nothing. You on the other hand…” he trailed off suggestively, “you’ve been talking an awful lot for a guy with a lot of secrets to hide, and lets just say that I wasn’t the only one listening.”

He tapped a finger underneath the table and Ross crouched down quick enough to catch a glance of the device hidden on the other side. His face was as red as Tony’s armor when he realized he’d been had and Tony couldn’t keep the smirk from his face. 

“Careful Ross, I’ve seen your cardiograph. Don’t want to put too much stress on the old ticker so fresh from your last heart attack.”

Ross looked like he might say something or hit him again when an explosion went off in the background. Everyone turned their attention towards the sound, Ross letting out a frustrated growl as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He turned back to his men, carefully plotting his next move, backing up towards the exit like a caged animal. “Get them out of here. I want the entire cell block heavily guarded,” he ordered.

“Don’t hide now, Ross, party’s just getting started,” Tony taunted.

Ross didn’t even respond, just shot him a dirty look and took off around the corner. Berenger moved in then and unlocked Tony’s cuffs for the first time in days possibly, he couldn’t remember, but his arm was definitely out of sorts again. It was limp once more at his side and the spike of pain that came from it being jostled was enough to send darkness clawing at the edge of his vision, trying to drag him back down to unconsciousness. 

He must have really been out of it because the next thing he knew he was half walking, half being dragged down the hallway, his entire body alight with the pins and needles feeling as his blood began to circulate properly again. 

It wasn’t that long of a trip back to the cells but even from here Tony could make out the distinct sounds of fighting off in the distance. Ross must have really been desperate if he had his men actually attacking the team on site. Friday must have dug up some really nasty information on the Secretary.

The door to their cell was quickly opened revealing an exhausted looking Maria, pacing the length of the cell. She cried out when they were finally pushed inside, Tony once again pushed to the floor without much care. Maria dropped to her knees beside him and pulled him up onto her lap. 

“I thought you were dead this time,” she mumbled into his hair, kissing his forehead and holding him against her, mindful of the injuries that she could observe. “You were gone for so long. What’s happening?” This she directed towards Howard who had been pushed in behind Tony.

“Our ride home is here,” Howard said, observing the trembling guards around them.

The guards had not left the cell this time, instead they all gathered around the entrance, some inside and others out, weapons ready, facing either direction as they waited for the unknown attackers to show themselves. Even Berenger looked unsure, his sidearm in his hand, eyes darting all over the room.

“Look out!” one of the men shouted and then there was a pop and smoke began to fill the hall.

Tony couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw the flash of Cap’s shield being thrown, the groans and cries of men filling the air as they fired their weapons freely. The sounds of the fight started to taper off after a couple of minutes until all that could be heard was a gunshot somewhere off in the distance and the sound of that infernal alarm they had yet to cut off. Berenger took a step back from the doorway, still obscured by the smoke and kept his gun trained on it, unwilling to even blink, the sound of heavy boots approaching.

Tony sat up in his mother’s arms a little even though the action caused a sharp pain in his chest and he hissed in pain. Maria helped support him better in her arms after that, admonishing him softly even as she helped him.

That’s when Steve- no, Captain America emerged from the smoke in full battle regalia, shield gleaming at his side like he had literally just stepped out of one of Tony’s fucking comic books he’d had growing up, heroic aura and all. Sometimes he really wanted to punch that bastard in the mouth for always being so perfect, but right now he was an absolute sight for sore eyes. If this were a movie, Tony could almost hear the triumphant swell of music accompanying the man and he couldn’t suppress the giggles that followed, laughing even through the pain.

When Berenger finally realized what he was up against he changed the direction of his weapon, pointing it at Tony in the hopes of gaining some leverage.

“Son,” Cap said, cocking his head to the side in that self righteous little way that had always driven Tony crazy before, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“D-don’t come any closer,” Berenger said shakily, taking another small step back.

A bright flash of blue light then burst all around Berenger, his body convulsing under the electric shock as his weapon fell harmlessly to the floor, followed by the man himself. 

“Nat…” Tony said with relief.

Natasha stepped out from the vanishing smoke beside Steve and discharged the used widow’s bite from her wrist. “Hey, Shellhead, you alright?”

Tony closed his eyes and leaned back against his mother, as fully relaxed as he could be now that he and his family were finally safe again and grinned. He felt Nat bend down beside him and he couldn’t help the familiar jab from escaping his lips. 

“Always. What took you so long, you stop for drive-thru?”

A flash of a smirk appeared on Nat’s face as her hands ghosted over and catalogued his injuries. “Yeah, we got you some burgers in the quinjet.” Her voice was even and measured as always but he could see the worry in the way that her eyes crinkled and she glanced at Steve who was removing Howard’s handcuffs.

“Did you get Ross?”

Steve crouched down beside him and took his cowl off, sweaty blond hair sticking up all over. “Vision and Wanda are on it now, apparently he’s holed up in his office. Vision is going to show them his creepy wall trick.”

“Serves em’ right.”

“Did he do this to you?” Steve asked, his brow furrowing unhappily.

“No, that was static shock over here,” Tony replied, rolling his head towards the unconscious Berenger.

Steve clenched his jaw as his frown deepened. “Well, I’ll make sure to escort him out personally.”

Tony shook his head, “Just get them out of here,” he pointed to his hovering parents.

“I’ve got them,” Nat chimed, as she rummaged through one of the pockets of what Tony playfully dubbed her Batman utility belt.

Howard started to object to being treated as if he weren’t in the room but Maria shot him a glare that said to shut up and be thankful for the help. The sound of the alarms cut off abruptly after that and they all spared a quick glance to them, thankful for the relief

“We’ve got enough back up to take everyone in, anyways. Fury and Hill send their regards,” Steve said standing back up.

Tony could only nod tiredly, feeling himself fading fast, the earlier surge of adrenaline waning. 

“A little treat for the ride,” Natasha said, flashing a small syringe in front of his face. She waited until he could make out what it was. He gave her a reluctant glance, weary to show any kind of weakness in front of anyone, even his teammates and _especially_ his parents. Then he shifted slightly where he lay and was hit with sharp pain throughout and most of all running up his arm and shoulder and finally gave the go ahead to Natasha. She and Bruce were the only two he would trust with such treatment, and it always made him think of the first incident a million years ago with Nat, a syringe, and a donut shop. It was an inside joke of theirs. “Morphine shot,” Nat explained to Howard and Maria as she injected the fast acting treatment, “that arm is going to cause a lot of pain and I’d rather him not remember it.”

“Don't let them out of your sight…” Tony said, his eyes blinking drowsily as he lifted a finger towards Steve...or maybe Natasha. They started to blur together as the morphine did its work, a numbing feeling washing across his entire body. “Call Pepper..” he mumbled and finally let his eyes fall shut, sinking away into darkness.

* * *

“Hey, any change?” Rhodey, called quietly from the doorway, a cup of coffee in each hand. 

Pepper looked up tiredly from her vigil at Tony’s side, the soft beeping of Tony’s heartbeat a reassuring thrum in the otherwise silent room. She turned tired eyes to her fiance’s form in the bed, that troublesome left arm held tightly against his chest in a brand new sling. He’d hardly budged since the last time that Rhodey had checked in, consciousness completely buried under the good drugs he was currently hooked up to.

“I think he mumbled some lyrics of AC/DC’s around six-thirty, but not a peep since then,” she said, gratefully accepting the fresh cup of coffee as Rhodey sat next to her in one of the plastic hospital chairs that were only comfortable for ten minutes before they wreaked hell upon your ass and lower back, and she’d been sitting in her own off and on for nearly twenty-four hours, ever since they moved Tony from the recovery room following his shoulder surgery. 

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Rhodey mumbled, shifting awkwardly to find a comfortable spot, then sitting up, leaning forward with his hands on his knees when he found no such spot. “One time in college I had to take this idiot to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. When he came to he picked right up singing whatever karaoke song he had passed out singing.”

Pepper chuckled quietly, her shoulders rising and falling with the emotion. She was exhausted and walking the fine line between overly caffeinated and slap happy. Anything that was even remotely humorous was eliciting full bodily laughs. 

“How did everything go on your end?” she asked, sipping away at the overly sweetened beverage. She was thankful Rhodey knew exactly how she took her coffee at times of crisis. 

“It’s the government, so you know, a complete fucking mess.”

“That bad, huh? Sounds like the board,” she sympathized. 

“No one likes to admit when they’ve appointed a psychotic man as their Secretary of Defense. Ross is toast though. Friday dredged up every dirty secret the man has ever had. The Raft has been decommissioned and Ross will be looking at the inside of a prison for a very long time once they get the trial rolling.”

“Good. The bastard deserves it. I don’t know how he thought he’d get away with any of this.”

“Especially with Toomes rolling on him so quickly when he realized Ross was trying to throw him under the bus too.”

“That and his strange soft spot for Peter,” she replied, remembering what Rhodey had told her about Peter saving the man even after he had almost killed him several times. 

Peter recounted every moment of Homecoming from him going to pick up his date, to realizing that Toomes was his girlfriend's father, the threats, the building that was collapsed on top of Pete with no suit but his ragged sweats to keep him safe. Pepper had suffered enough mini-heart attacks courtesy of Tony and she really wasn’t happy to have another wild child to worry sick about.

“Speaking of what a college aged Tony was like…” Rhodey insinuated with an exasperated shake of the head. 

“Is he back with May?”

“Yeah, but he said he’ll be visiting after school. Well. Maybe. May still isn’t a fan of the whole Spiderman thing so I think she might come with him.”

“Poor thing, she’s scared to let him out of her sight. I know the feeling,” she said and reached the hand not holding the coffee, out to hold onto Tony’s warm hand beside her.

“At least he told her and she didn’t have to find out another way.”

“P-pep...Pepper?” Tony mumbled groggily, Pepper and Rhodey’s attention shooting towards him.

Pepper squeezed his hand in hers softly, hoping to ground him as his eyes fluttered open and shut. “I’m right here, Tony.”

“Where am I?”

Pepper smiled as Tony was finally able to hold his eyes open, looking clearer than he had since she first arrived. “You’re on the medical floor of Stark Tower. You’re safe.”

“Mom...Howard?”

“Safe.” She nodded her head to his left and he turned slowly to see his parents sprawled out beside each other on the convertible loveseat, Maria curled into Howard’s chest. “Rhodey’s here too, and the Avengers have all been in and out of the waiting area the last couple of days.”

“Couple of days?” he asked, eyes going wide.

“You were pretty beat up, your shoulder needed surgery and you’ve got a lot of bruised ribs,” she began to rattle off the sickening list of injuries. 

“And you have told me all of this before…” Tony said, slowly making the correlation behind the calmness behind the well phrased answers, like Pepper had been practicing them in her head or something. 

She smiled gently. “To be fair, they have you doped up on the good stuff. They’re starting to wean you away now though, so the doctors said it should be easier for you to remember and stay awake for longer periods of time. Which is perfect,” she said, her grip tightening on his hand and her brow furrowing, “because that means you’ll remember everything i say to you when I tell you how absolutely bat shit insane your plan that I wasn’t supposed to worry about was.”

“I’m gonna go let Steve and them know he’s awake,” Rhodey said, hopping to his feet and clasping her shoulder in his hand and then turning to Tony with a not unsympathetic grin. “Good luck, Tones.” He slipped out of the room to give the pair some privacy as quickly as he could, unwilling to be caught up in the hell of emotions that were about to be released. He’d already dealt with a distressed Pepper Potts twice in the last week and he wasn’t going to do it again if he could avoid it.

“What were you thinking?” she asked him as the door shut in finality. 

“I am under the influence of painkillers, anything that I say is under the influence and therefore inadmissible in the court of...Pepper,” he trailed off, his brain not quit firing at one hundred percent yet.

“How about we agree then that the next time you decide to get yourself interned in a superhero prison to be tortured for information that _might_ exist, you instead think...what would Pepper do. And if I wouldn’t do it then you definitely shouldn’t do it.”

“Hey, now, that takes away nearly everything fun that I do too,” he moped playfully, brown eyes wide and doe-like leaving Pepper unable to resist their charm.

“There’s always kinky Tuesday’s,” she teased.

“Saved again, thank God for kinky Tuesday’s,” hu mumbled dopily, the drugs still taking their toll. “How is- um-” he gesticulated to her midsection with his index finger hoping she’d be able to decipher what he meant.

“Fine. We’re fine,” she said softly, her hand finding her still flat belly and holding it there protectively. 

“Good. The stress...I worried.”

“All the more reason you need to curb the crazy.”

“I might be able to make an exception,” his eyes wandered then and Pepper would be surprised if he stayed awake more than another five minutes. “Are they really? They are fine? They’re real...not--Ii had a weird dream,” he mumbled, his words beginning to slur at the edges and he tried to shake away the fog.

“Medical looked them both over and they’re fine. Your Dad’s hand should heal just fine in a couple weeks and your mom was injury free aside from all the stress. You put ten years on her, I swear. They haven’t left your side. Both of them,” she clarified.

Tony’s heart warmed at that and then he squeezed his eyes together at something she said, his brain going through the rolodex of memories to try and place a memory with her words. “Dad’s hand?”

“Oh yeah, Nat said you were out for that part. Howard took a pot shot at Ross while they were dragging him out of the Raft. Had a lot of choice words too. Fractured a couple of knuckles but according to Nat, Ross will be lucky if his nose is ever straight again. She was very impressed.”

Tony smiled, envisioning the scene in his mind, his father standing up for him, something he never thought possible, and he was reminded of how Howard never gave in to Berenger’s demands because Tony asked him not to. They had forged a strange little bond over the last few months and for once, everything felt like it was going to be okay.

“You’re so tired,” Pepper smiled fondly, running her hand up and down his cheek softly, his eyes fluttering shut for a little longer with each pass. “Get some rest now, you absolute idiot. I’ll be here waiting when you wake up.”

She leaned forward and pressed a lingering kiss to his forehead.

“Love you…” he mumbled, his eyes blinking heavily.

“I love you, too.”

The last thing he saw before he drifted off to sleep was Pepper’s face, her smile wide and her eyes full of love, all for him. He drank it up greedily, thankful to have her by his side even as he faded off into pleasant dreams of blue eyes and red hair like so many times before. The good dreams were always of her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ONE CHAPTER TO GO.


	33. The Wedding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone, long time no see! For anyone not following the tumblr blog I am so sorry that this poor thing has languished on the last chapter for 2 1/2 months. Life had thrown me some curves and I was hit with bad writer's block but here we are ONE WHOLE YEAR later from when I posted the very first chapter.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has ever left kudos, reviews, sent me messages, encouraged me to continue, or even just lurked behind the scenes all year reading. You are all valued. You are all amazing. You are all the reason this story has become what it has and I will never forget that. 
> 
> You may notice that the story has now been updated with a series tag where I will post all follow ups and one-shots that take place in this universe. If you want to keep up with the latest please click the subscribe button on the series page! Next up we'll be tackling Infinity War and Endgame of course, with plenty of oneshots and tie ins in between. 
> 
> You also may have noticed there has been an additional chapter added...I wanted to give you a choice. The end of this chapter will give you the happily ever after that you wish for. However, if you are as addicted to the cliffhangers as I am, Chapter 34 is going to give us the first teaser into the next story in the universe. So, read at your own peril. ;)
> 
> I LOVE YOU ALL. Thank you for making me and this story feel so loved. I hope you enjoy...The End....

Everything had to be perfect. 

After this disaster of a year, just one thing had to go according to plan. He deserved it and Pepper deserved it more. That was why Tony took it upon himself to be awake early that morning, way earlier than Pepper dictated he needed to be, and with a little help from his bots, upgraded with some dazzling new all terrain wheels, he personally made sure that every one of Pepper’s wedding designs were meticulously upgraded and brought to life. He supposed that this was a job that should have been left up to an expensive wedding coordinator and their army of décor minions, and they had, for the decoy wedding day in August, but for the actual wedding Tony had wanted to have a more hands on approach. The gathering was smaller, more intimate, close friends and family only. It was also taking place lakeside in the front yard of their new family home and he wanted as few outsiders traipsing about this location as possible, lest someone spill the beans to the press and not only would the wedding be ruined, but the location of their home would be shared for tabloid fodder and that was not acceptable. 

As it was now, their yard had been filled with tents (all equipped with Stark Industries newest prototype design, energy efficient heaters powered by arc technology, and aimed to provide a safer heating alternative to underprivileged families who couldn’t afford heat and relied on electric heaters or worse, kerosene, in the winters). The weather for the day would be thankfully mild for December (hello, global warming), hanging around the fifty-five degree mark, and what the hell had they been thinking, having an outdoor December wedding anyways? 

Part of it was Pepper, but truly it had been Tony’s idea, a way to reclaim December 16th as a happy day for his family and not the bitter omen it had been since 1991. He just perhaps hadn’t completely thought through all of the logistics of what a winter wedding upstate could entail, giving in to his impulsive side and dying on this hill. It didn’t help that they had already cancelled or changed wedding plans half a dozen times to this point and it had begun to fray on his nerves and anxiety, his mind taking the time to fill in all the reasons why Pepper deserved better than him and always had. He needed to do this _now_ and if the date also held sentimental meaning then all the better. 

Sometimes though he was still shocked by just how quickly the last year had flown by. Over a year after he had got his family back from the grave, righted his relationship with Pepper and asked her to be his wife. He had wanted nothing more than to marry Pepper the moment he was discharged from the hospital following his trip to the Raft, life as usual had had other plans, and brought about their first wedding delay. 

While most of his injuries aboard the Raft had been superficial or at least not severe in a life or death fashion, the same couldn’t be said for his shoulder. The barely healed injury from June had havoc wreaked upon it for the duration of his time in the floating prison, and as such led to a displaced shoulder fracture and slight tear to the rotator cuff. Surgery had been performed and while Tony had some of the best doctors available, the pain was staggering and the physical therapy that followed had been nothing short of grueling. His arm still wasn’t back to 100% even a year later, still experiencing the occasional tremor which doctors surmised had been from the initial injury in June, the result of peripheral nerve damage, exacerbated by the further trauma. 

All things considered though, Tony counted himself among the lucky ones. Especially, after everything Ross had been up to was brought to light not long after the surgery.

Ross’ trial had been handled pretty expediently by American standards, in part by public demand for action for his crimes, which ranged from international weapon dealing, to illegal human experimentation with variations of the super soldier formula. They had also found remains on the Raft of otherwise enhanced individuals, some of them young, like Peter’s age young, that had been subjected to God only knows what kind of torture and experimentation before they were disposed of. If there had ever been a moment that Tony was thankful for, it was that he had been able to protect Peter from Ross. It was clear that whatever the man had hoped to gain by finding out Spiderman’s identity was for much more nefarious purposes than even Tony could have anticipated. By the 2017 new year, Ross had been put in a military prison where he promptly fell down and empty elevator shaft and died. Or that is least what Tony wished would have happened. Instead he had to settle for the man being incarcerated for life in Leavenworth breaking rocks with a dull pickax or whatever they did in prison these days. Not nearly what he deserved, but Tony wouldn't go against the letter of the law now.

Tony put the finishing touches on the wedding décor with a clap of his hands. Not a single twinkle light or bouquet of flowers for the heated reception tents was out of place.

“Would you look at that?” he directed towards Dum-E and held out his watch for the bot to see, “we finished with plenty of time to spare.”

Dum-E chirped happily beside Tony and followed him as he made his way back across the yard, bypassing the main house and veering off to the path for the smaller cottage at the far end of the property. DUM-E beeped his goodbyes as he broke off at the diverged path to return to Tony’s garage sanctuary to ready himself for his next big wedding job, as Tony continued onward. 

The cottage hadn’t been an original feature when they purchased the land, only added within the last year to accommodate its new occupants, a certain pair of newly doting grandparents, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that it was a new addition. The home was built from similar types of wood as its larger counterpart and as such was given the faded appearance of time. Even the front door let out a pleasant creak as he opened and closed it behind him, the smell of fresh paint still lingering in the entryway. 

If anyone had come out of the events of the last year mostly unscathed, then that honor would have to go to his parents. After the bogus arrest with Ross, all the alphabet agencies sat down with them all for debriefings, with the full support of Stark Industries lawyers on hand to prevent any shady business, and they were easily found innocent of any kind of treason (Tony too), all ending in yet another press conference and even a formal apology by the President, despite the fact that Ross had acted without his actual expressed approval. Their story was told at another press conference (uninterrupted this time), through press releases and even the occasional interview over the next few months. 

The public had been surprisingly sympathetic. There would always be the occasional conspiracy whisperers or naysayers that thought Tony was conducting some sort of necromancy in some seedy, secret villain lair, but the larger part had been more fascinated than anything else, and he would largely credit that one to Christine Everhart and her way with words, having championed the Starks from the beginning. 

Since Howard and Maria’s assets had all been rolled over to Tony after their “deaths,” the next point of task was to get them back on their feet financially, and legally. Death Certificates were voided after conclusive blood test results, allowing their case to move forward with legal. Though a mediator was necessary by law, this was an event that they had already discussed in detail with Tony and worked out so there were no points of contention. The Long Island property would return to their possession, along with all the necessary funds to ensure their previous quality of life. The money had never been an issue except when Maria insisted that Tony was giving them more than they would ever need, to which he responded that it was technically their money anyways, only with the necessary interests of time added. 

The Stark Industries board were the only skeptics left to convince after all was said and done, mostly due to the legalities and if control would go back to the now alive Howard Stark as he never formally relinquished his position or holdings. Not that it mattered. Howard wasn’t interested in making a power grab or causing any trouble, more than happy to step aside and let Pepper continue her reign, taking instead a consolatory position with Tony and R&D when he was ready. 

Working with Howard this last year had actually been...okay. 

They still disagreed a lot, both of them too quick to dig their heels in, bantering over projects or upgrades, and Howard wasn’t always up to date on the newest technologies which could slow them down while they worked but for what seemed like the first time, he was actually trying. He was more open and honest, doing his best to withhold any thoughts or language that might come across as scolding or like he was patronizing Tony. In return Tony was learning to be more patient, trying not to second guess his father or jump to negative conclusions with his critique, instead fostering a creative give and take relationship. Howard offered fresh eyes when Tony was stuck on a project, his old school way of thinking offering a new avenue of perspective that otherwise Tony would probably not have considered before. 

As such they were able to continue to work together on BARF and in addition to Princess Shuri in Wakanda’s input, developed a use of the technology to help erase the Hydra trigger words control over Bucky Barnes. The man still had a long road of recovery to go down, but seeing actual happy tears from Steve Rogers as he shook Tony and Howard’s hands had been enough of a victory for them. 

His mother on the other hand had spent the early days of their reintegration to the world a little lost and out of sorts. Maria had always spent the larger part of her life at Howard’s side, out of the spotlight, though her charity work was numerous and remarkable, it had been difficult for her to slip back into such a role, especially after everything that she had been subjected to since their “deaths.” So, instead she fell back into old passions, starting with her music. 

If there was one benefit to the overabundance of emotional turmoil that she had been put through in such a short time, then it was her ability to express all of her feelings through her own brand of musical therapy. Maria had never really had time before to compose her own work, though she had often wished to, anything original had never really been put to the page though until now. She wrote, and wrote, and wrote. The piano that Tony had gifted her was constantly filled with papers of half written melodies scattered about the bench, his mother stopping and starting her playing to make changes as she put all the emotion she was feeling into her music. It turned out to be haunting and beautiful at the same time as her turmoil and anxieties flowed from her fingertips onto the keys of the piano. She could get lost for days in her work sometimes, not unlike Tony and Howard when they had a stroke of inspiration in the lab. It made Tony wonder if maybe he had actually inherited his obsessive attention to detail from his mother instead of Howard.

When she had a large enough collection put together everyone encouraged her to put it out for the consumption of the general public but, unlike Howard and Tony, she was shy and nervous about sharing her most personal creations and didn’t necessarily require the same sort of praise and satisfaction. 

So, instead, Tony gifted his mother with an early Christmas present and booked Carnegie Hall for a one night, friends and family only performance on December 16th, 2016, the twenty-fifth anniversary of their “deaths” and their first back in the real world. This had been the first step of reclaiming the date and helped push him to choose it for his and Pepper’s wedding, wishing to continue to build the good memories on the date. 

The evening had been a rousing success. He had never seen his mother smile as much as she did that night. 

Well. 

At least until the morning of April 2, 2017 when perhaps the thing that helped bring his mother purpose the most in the subsequent months, and even more so to his own, was the much anticipated arrival of a certain bouncing baby girl with Pepper's temperament and his eyes that they simply named Morgan. 

The very same reason in fact that he and Pepper had been too bleary eyed with exhaustion to marry in May like they'd so ambitiously planned, because really they were a superhero and a renowned, badass CEO, how hard could it be to plan a wedding around an infant? Needless to say that was prior to their exhaustive experience with colic and its unrelenting hold on their newborn. Tony knew being tired. He had chronic insomnia on top of the ability and drive to stay up for days when he was really hit with an idea to tinker with. This was on a completely different level. This was bone weary, bleary eyed, mind fogging exhaustion. Morgan would just cry, for no reason, for hours. Every. Single. Day. 

It had been with great dismay that they threw in the towel but he didn’t think that he or Pepper either were even coherent enough to know their own names those first couple of months let alone get married. 

A Stark Industries emergency that forced Pepper to temporarily return from maternity leave and then a minor Avengers emergency with something called Doom-bots, taking over Manhattan had forced them to postpone the wedding an additional two times until finally Tony had put his foot down, leading them full circle to their wedding day, today, December 16th. 

Tony glanced around the open room as he stepped into the cottage and found no sign of anyone being awake yet. He kicked his boots off at the door lest he track mud everywhere and catch hell for it. 

“Anybody up yet?” he called as he ducked his head to peak into the living room and saw Peter was still passed out on the couch from where he had fallen asleep last night, the DVD menu for Star Wars still repeating on a loop. He smiled gently and picked up the blanket from where Peter had kicked it off onto the floor in the night and fixed it back across the teen, who immediately burrowed into it. 

Peter had been chosen as one of his few groomsmen and as such had stayed over after Tony’s bachelor party concluded the previous night.

The bachelor party looked and felt a lot different than the younger version of Tony had envisioned, if he had ever really envisioned getting married at all. There were absolutely no strippers of any kind or anyone jumping out of a cake. There were no clubs to bar hop across the town to. Definitely no illicit drugs and barely any alcohol. The strongest drink that had been shared was from cheap IPA beers that Rhodey had picked up from the gas station on the way over.

“I bought the weirdest looking thing I could find in the beer cave at that seedy looking drive thru at the exit before town, and the name Dogfish Head just screamed college Tony to me,” he had explained dropping the cases on the kitchen island, along with two of the greasiest pizzas that Tony would absolutely die for.

“Honeybear, you know me so well,” Tony had smiled and cracked one open, while simultaneously smacking Peter’s hand away. “This is for the adults, the Capri-Sun is in the fridge.”

Happy chuckled at the teen’s face and teased him relentlessly through the night until Tony made a quiet joke to him out of range of Peter’s super senses, about a certain Aunt Hottie that he knew Happy had been exchanging text messages with, immediately shutting the man up, though only barely.

Even Howard had abided by the no liquor rules given the younger age of said Spider groomsman, and lowered his standards for the evening, sipping on the $10 beer without complaint. 

The evening was further spent uneventfully jumping between different board games, Howard and Tony battled for realty dominance in Monopoly (“I remember playing Monopoly when it first came out…” Howard rambled as he viciously collected everyone's earnings. "This is why we should eat the rich," Peter lamented, landing on his third hotel in as many rolls) while Rhodey conquered the world in Risk. 

Peter was seemingly just happy to be there until he switched the tempo to playing video games, and no matter how awesome Tony remembered himself being at original Nintendo or Super Nintendo in college and the years after, that life skill simply did not translate to the newest consoles, Rhodey’s skills either, so after losing Mario Kart for the sixth time in a row, Tony skillfully deflected Peter’s attention into a Star Wars marathon. Thus the night had ended with Peter crashing halfway through A New Hope, Happy sneaking away to make a call to his new “friend”, Howard debating the scientific inaccuracies of the film with Rhodey, and Tony wondering how his wild life had led him to this utterly picturesque moment of total normality.

Finding no one else up and about, Tony made his way up the stairs, socks padding lightly against the wooden steps. The upstairs was as quiet as downstairs had been and a quick glance to the firmly shut guest room doors confirmed that everyone was still asleep. He shrugged and supposed that the wedding wasn’t for another three hours so they had earned their sleep and continued through to his temporary room and began stripping down for a shower. 

His shoulder twinged slightly as he removed his long sleeved shirt, the slight winter nip in the air outside making the old injury ache. The scarring from the surgery thankfully wasn’t bad and could hardly be seen unless you knew where to look. It joined nicely with the patchwork of scarring across the rest of his body. 

Tony turned the shower as hot as he could stand and let the water wash over the aching muscle and finally for the first time felt the slightest flutter of anticipation in his stomach. In just a few short hours he and Pepper were finally going to be married.

No matter how many times he had thought of this day since 2008 he was never certain whether he would actually make it to now or not. Between being Iron Man, his own mental health issues, Pepper’s hesitance and their subsequent break, their relationship had always seemed like an uphill struggle for happiness. That’s why whenever he thought too hard about their life he was constantly astounded they made it this far, or that Pepper wouldn’t just run screaming in the other direction, that she would willingly walk down that aisle and say I do. 

Or so he hoped, of course. He supposed today was the day that he would find out for sure, even though their relationship had never been more rock solid than it was today, he couldn’t entirely keep the slight doubt at bay. He already knew at his core and had for years that he didn’t deserve her. Not her loyalty or her love. He constantly stressed her out with his own line of work and idiosyncrasies. His family literally came back from the dead last year after the PR nightmare of the ‘civil war.’ She didn’t need that stress. She didn’t need someone she had to worry about whether they’d live or die every time they left for work.

But here she was anyways...

By the time he finished washing himself and wrapped a towel around his waist, he could hear Rhodey laughing in the distance somewhere and assumed that everyone had finally woken up.

He wiped the condensation from the mirror and set to work trimming and shaping the slight overgrowth of his facial hair. He really should have gone to his stylist for a quick cut and dye job, but Pepper seemed fond of the salt and pepper style that was beginning to show through his hair and beard. He took it as the compliment it was even as the vain side of his mind was eternally screaming in protest. The longer hair he could deal with, especially with the way Pepper would run her hands through it.

"I always loved when you let it get shaggy and these curls would start coming out," she had said, tugging at a curl that formed behind his ear.

Anything that made Pepper happy was enough for Tony, vanity be damned. 

“Not bad, old man,” he said to himself as he looked over the clean lines of his shaving and the appropriate amount of product to tame his hair.

From there he made quick work of the rest of his morning bathroom routine and exited back out to the bedroom, opening up the closet door and grabbed the suit that was hanging inside where Pepper had dutifully left it when she had left for the evening. Tony still didn’t fully understand the whole, can’t see the bride before the wedding tradition, even as he and Pepper had stood in this same room yesterday discussing it. 

“It’s just bad luck,” she had said, placing the outfit into the closet.

“Bad luck how though, Pep? I mean haven’t we already broken the most sacred of marriage dos and don’ts when Morgan was born?”

“And _that_ is _exactly_ why we currently need all the help we can get to offset any potential negative vibes. We’re already starting on a handicap and it’s all your fault,” she said poking his chest with her finger.

Tony reached out and grabbed her hand in his and kissed it. “I seem to remember you being heavily involved in that activity, boss, correct me if I’m wrong. In fact if you don’t remember, perhaps I can jog your memory with a little crime scene recreation,” he teased and spun Pepper around, gently letting her flop back against the bed, as he draped himself across her.

“And that is exactly how we got in trouble last time, Casanova,” she smiled, her eyebrow quirking with amusement.

“Yes, and now that we are alone in a bedroom for the first time in eight months you really wanna spend it apart because of some superstitious rules?”

Pepper had seemed to think it over for a moment before smiling and leaning forward in the gap between them, her lips stopping inches from his. “Yes,” she whispered and pushed him away with a laugh. 

Lucky enough for them too because that had been the exact moment Peter had arrived and burst into the room completely oblivious to the tension that had been forming as he went on a panicked tangent of his own after the girl he had been sweet on for months accepted his invite to be his date at the wedding. 

So, Pepper had smiled and kissed his cheek goodbye, reminding him again of the wedding time and where his suit was hanging before leaving along with his mother for the main house. 

“Tones, you decent? I really don’t wanna accidentally see your ass again,” Rhodey knocked on his door, breaking him out of the memory.

Tony smiled to himself and pulled the white button up shirt on and pulled on his pants. “That was entirely your fault for not knocking.”

“It was my dorm room too!” 

“And you didn’t adhere to the sock on the handle rule, I don’t know how else I could have been more clear.” Tony finished buttoning the shirt and began tucking it into his pants. “Your poor virgin eyes are safe to enter.”

Rhodey scoffed but opened the door anyways. “All this snark and here I come bearing gifts for your ungrateful self,” he said, slipping into the room and placing a cup of coffee onto the bedside table.

“Aw, thanks sugar plum. I knew there was a reason I made you the best man.” He finished tucking the shirt in and buttoned his pants and tightened his belt before taking a long drink from the steaming cup.

“Um, how about because I have been your best friend for thirty-two years and there’s no way in hell you would have made it this far without me?”

Tony waved him off. “Yeah, yeah, all that too, but also for your coffee making skills.”

“Just don’t spill any of that on your shirt or Pepper might actually kill me.” Rhodey shook his head and leaned back against the wall, watching as Tony continued to get ready. “So, how are you holding up?”

Tony fumbled with his cufflink, feeling the nerves from the bathroom that he had been keeping at bay steadily starting to wrap around him again. “What do you mean? I’m getting married, not heading for the electric chair. I’m fine.”

“Not getting cold feet?”

“Cold feet? Rhodey, we may as well be married already, we’ve been together for years, we have a child, remember? Cute baby, brown curls? I’m not worried about anything,” he said indignantly, fumbling with the cufflink for the third time. 

Rhodey didn’t say a word, just stepped towards his friend again and took the offending piece of jewelry, little arc reactors that would accent the blue of his tie, and ignored Tony’s annoyed sigh as he easily fastened them both into place. “I know all that, I’m just saying that it’s okay if you are,” he finally spoke, grabbing Tony’s tie and placing it around his neck, “it’s a perfectly normal response and I know you man. You second guess everything and I am sure that you are listing one hundred and one reasons why you don’t deserve happiness. I just wanted to remind you that you don’t ever need to second guess Pepper and you don’t need to second guess your own worth. You earned this, man.”

He finished expertly tying the tie and smoothed it out over his chest before stepping back with satisfaction. Tony had remained silent for his entire pep talk, swallowing back a lump in his throat and letting a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. There was definitely a reason that Rhodey was his best friend. Not just because he had stuck around, but because he actually knew Tony, probably better than almost anyone else. 

“I don’t know. I know I get in my own head, I just can’t help feeling like something will go wrong today. I mean she’s marrying _me_ ,” he confessed, feeling some of his nerves breakaway as he was able to voice his fears to his trusted friend. 

“You’re right, it’s just in your head, man. You’re thinking about these things because you’ve had to postpone so many times. Morgan is sleeping through the nights now. Stark Industries is doing fine. Any Avengers related emergencies are being handled by that Strange guy Fury introduced us to and if needed we have T’Challa and Wakanda on standby too. Worse case scenario half of the guests today will be Avengers and we can handle things long enough for you guys to say your vows. You will get married today. Pepper will marry you today.”

“Look there wasn’t even any competition for the best man part so you really don’t have to reassert your friendship dominance here,” he joked and turned to face the mirror, adjusting the tie slightly even though it had been perfect already.

“You’re welcome.” 

As usual, Rhodey understood what he meant anyways. Tony sighed and tried to shake the nerves back once again. Time for a subject change.

“Mama and Jeannette still coming?”

“Yep, I was just texting them. Lila is very excited for her co-flower girl job. Mama said she has been practicing all week.”

Tony grinned thinking of the nine year old girl he considered his own niece. “Yeah sorry for the no rehearsal, didn’t wanna jinx anything. I’m sure she’ll be amazing though. She’s never let me down yet.”

“She has also claimed a dance at the reception, but I’m not sure she realizes the only dancing you’re passable with is perfunctory circles.”

“Hey now, I have some moves,” he said with mock offense.

“The Safety Dance does not count.”

“Only if your name is Rhodey and you aren’t any fun,” he replied, slipping on his waist coat. 

A knock from the doorway stole the biting comment that Tony was sure his best friend was going to make. He turned to the door and was only slightly surprised to see Howard standing there, already in his suit and ready for the ceremony, not a hair out of place unless you counted the beard that Tony had convinced him to give a go because really it’s 2017. Mustaches hadn’t been fashionable in decades. 

“Hey, Howard, you just get off of a GQ shoot or something? You know it’s not nice to upstage the bride and groom,” Tony teased and he could practically hear his father’s eyes roll.

“Can I have a word?” he simply asked in return.

There was something up with the way that he spoke though Tony couldn’t quite pinpoint what. Now that he really took the time to look him over too, it was easy to see the little cracks in his armor. He held himself a little too stiffly in place, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. Though he made steady eye contact his face would ever so slightly twitch, a tic that Tony had begun to be able to decipher whenever his father was nervous or getting upset. 

Rhodey too seemed to sense the change in Howard’s demeanor. “I’ll go make sure Peter is up and ready to go.”

As Rhodey exited, Howard entered the room and came to stand before Tony. He held a slight height advantage with Tony still shoeless and he had to repress the feeling like he was about to be reprimanded like a child. 

“You haven’t come to snuff me have you? I really don’t want to postpone this wedding again, indefinitely this time,” he asked to try and lighten the mood.

“As if you’d see me coming if I were.”

“Not sure if that’s helpful or not,” he said and sat down on the bed and grabbed one of his black dress shoes that were shiny enough to see his own distorted reflection in them. “What’s the matter then? Mom going to make you shave the beard? Or did you forget to have Friday backup your notes again?”

Howard hesitated. “Nothing is wrong.”

Tony didn’t believe that. Normally he would find it interesting to see Howard so devoid of his public persona, all charm and charisma remarkably absent, but as someone who had their own set of demons and defects to wade through, it just made him feel uncomfortable. Off balance even. Mixing that with his lingering bout of anxiety, Tony found himself becoming frustrated.

“Well, you wanted to talk. You have as much time as anyone here, but we are on a little bit of a time crunch, so if it’s potentially wedding day ending I’d rather know sooner than later.”

“Nothing like that, Tony, don’t be so dramatic. It’s just hard to say what I want to…” he admitted.

That made Tony feel a little better and he tried to remember that Howard was still new with open conversations about feelings and all the messy bits of life. He gave the man a moment and put on his shoes and tied them before turning back expectantly.

“I’ve got something for you. For the wedding.”

Tony raised his eyebrow. “Isn’t the whole something new and borrowed and blue normally reserved for the bride?”

“Don’t be a smartass,” Howard said with some of his normal bite and Tony grinned, finally feeling relieved. “My father wasn’t always a good man, but I know he did the best he could with me. Long before I married your mother but not long after I sold my first patent, he reached out to me again and apologized. He still didn’t understand what I was doing or why I was doing it, how I could have just walked away from him and the life he expected I follow, but he gave me the only thing of value that he owned.”

Howard pulled his hand out of his pocket to produce a white handkerchief. He extended the cloth to Tony who curiously accepted. He had never heard very much about his grandfather aside from the man's harsh parenting tactics so he found himself fascinated to see something that had come from him. 

Gently and carefully he unwrapped the cloth to reveal an old, gold pocket watch and chain.

“He won it in a dice game or so the story goes. He could have nicked it off of a passerby for all I know. I wore it when I married your mother and well...I just figured maybe I could give it to you for your day.”

Tony hummed and turned the watch over in his hand admiring its craftsmanship. He had a bit of a watch collection of his own, though he had never owned a piece this old. You could tell that it had really been taken care of over the years and he maybe had a brief flash of memories of Howard holding it in his palm then tucking it back into his pocket at some event. He opened the watch case up and was happily surprised to see a photo of Pepper and Morgan inside from the day Morgan was born. Pepper looked exhausted but happier than he’s ever seen her before. He smiled and felt a burst of love spread across his chest before closing the watch again. Then his thumb traced over an inscription that was made on the back of the case which was obviously new and he read it over and turned to where Howard stood silently, letting him take in the gift. 

“No amount of money ever bought a second of time?” he quoted with a soft smile. “That a Howard-ism?” 

"One that I have only recently been able to understand and able to make good on,” his father lamented. “The chain on that is new. It broke years and years ago and I had just put it in a drawer and almost forgot about it. The picture I borrowed from one of your mother’s albums. The something blue that you’re missing to complete the bridal tradition I think you’ll probably get at the ceremony.”

“Well, my tie is blue. Is this an admission that you also subscribe to superstitious wedding rituals, even though again, I am not the bride?”

Howard shrugged. “You need all the help you can get sometimes, kid.”

“Well, that’s definitely true. I guess it’s a good thing I have you looking out for me.” He finally stood up from the bed and tucked the watch into the front pocket of his vest and connected the chain to his trousers belt loop. “How do I look?”

Howard took his time looking his son over and nodded appreciatively. “Like the man I always hoped you would be.”

Compliments were still a strange thing to take coming from Howard’s mouth and they remained few and far between, even over the last year, as his father took strides in his openness. Tony didn’t mind because he knew that when Howard gave him one, he really meant it and that made it more special to him in a way. 

“Thanks, Dad,” he offered the moniker in return and embraced his father. This was something Howard was a little more comfortable with now after this last year and the birth of his grandchild, and he easily fell into the motion, clasping his son back tightly and patting his back. 

“Uh, Mr. Stark, sorry to interrupt but people are arriving,” Peter spoke out from the door, breaking the moment.

“Is she here yet?” Tony grinned at the teen as he blushed and ducked his head.

“She who?” Howard asked turning to regard the teen as well.

“Peter invited his crush.”

“She’s not my crush. She’s just a friend from school!”

“A friend that he talks about constantly and makes his face light up every time he gets a text from her,” Tony added with a conspiratorial stage whisper. 

“Oh really?” Howard asked, breaking out into a matching grin. ”Well then Pete, why don’t you come greet the guests with me while we let Tony finish up getting ready and I’ll impart to you some wisdom about dealing with your crushes.”

Peter was absolutely mortified but he let Howard slip an arm across his shoulders and lead him away.

Tony took a deep calming breath and peeked out the window and watched as their few guests began to arrive and make their way towards the tent. So far it looked like it was May Parker, the mysterious MJ and the Avengers; Natasha was part of the wedding party and so she was over at the main house already, Clint, Laura and the kids had shown up though along with Steve, Wanda and Vision. He hadn’t quite forgiven Wanda for her part in the Civil War and the initial injury to his arm and shoulder but she was young and being trained on her magic by a literal Wizard named Dr. Strange who coincidentally was handling any Avengers emergencies for the day. Wanda was making an effort though to be better and do better and he couldn’t fault her for that. Not to mention Vision was sweet on her and he owed it to the Android to try and make peace. 

He felt a pang in his chest that they still had never managed to find Bruce no matter how hard he tried to track him. He missed his friendship with the scientist and the quiet way that he had always been able to put his worries at ease. It wasn’t the first time he felt his loss and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Losing him was one of those few failures that would always continue to haunt him. 

Thor would also be a no show for the day, He’d been away on Asgardian business for a few months now, last checking in not long after Morgan had been born. That was okay though. Not only would their alpaca Gerald would be much happier without the lawn being scorched to hell with the god’s arrival, but he didn’t want Thor to be insulted that Morgan still couldn’t wear the tiny Asgardian helmet with wings on the side. Currently it was a glorified paper weight for the kitchen door.

He slid on his suit jacket and buttoned it up, looking himself over in the mirror one more time before picking a pair of glasses to wear, tinted the same color as the blue in his tie. His nerves all seemed to come to life once more but he pushed them away with a deep breath and the reminder that this is all he had dreamed of since he came home from the desert.

“Let's do this.”

* * *

Tears were already filling Maria’s eyes and the wedding ceremony hadn’t even started yet. 

She started off the morning normal enough in the lakehouse with Pepper and her family, her mother Sherri, a favorite cousin who claimed the matron of honor title, Black Widow and lastly, Pepper's college roommate. 

Pepper's mother was Maria's absolute favorite. She was kind, if a little quiet until she felt more comfortable with her surroundings. Once she got going she was referring to Pepper simply as Ginny, and kept the room in stitches over horror stories of her daughter's past boyfriends and any other embarrassing story she had been saving from her childhood just for this specific moment. She also wasn't shy to bring up exploits that Anthony had sent Pepper on in the early days of their working relationship.

"In the beginning I wasn't always a fan of Tony's," she confessed that night when they were in the kitchen pouring more wine for the group, tiptoeing quietly now that Morgan was in bed.

Maria felt her hackles rise a bit at the perceived insult that someone hadn't found her son as amazing as she did, but she realized Anthony had been a very different man before. A man he was no longer proud of and fought every day to never be like again. She remained quiet and sipped at the wine, letting Sherri collect her thoughts.

"You wouldn't believe the things he put her through and then suddenly they were dating. It was a shock. Then he came out to Ohio after the whole New York business and did everything in his power to win Mike and I over," she laughed at the memory and shook her head before looking Maria straight in the eye. "He tried so hard and never gave up no matter how much Mike put him through. He showed us then just how much he loves Ginny and now...I couldn't imagine anyone better to have standing at the end of that aisle tomorrow." 

It meant a lot to Maria that Sherri had been able to speak openly to her and it didn't take long for them to become fast friends from there. It was easy to bond with her, especially with the world's most beautiful granddaughter to pass back and forth between them the next morning as they made coffee and breakfast together for everyone. 

Then actually being there and watching as Pepper got her hair and make up fixed and then getting into her wedding dress...She looked like an angel. Even if what she wore was not a conventional gown. Before anyone could say anything about it though she took it upon herself to explain it.

“It will make sense to Tony,” she said simply. “We’ve never actually been one for tradition. I just like to drive him crazy,” She smiled brilliantly with her pearly white teeth and offered a teasing wink. 

Now it was just about time for the ceremony to begin as she waited outside of the tent where everyone was being seated. She had her doubts at first about a December wedding on a lake in tents no less but she had to say that Anthony had managed to pull it off beautifully. A small piano set off to one side of the small stage he'd built, that she would later play at for the procession, and the front of the tent looked out over the peaceful lakefront. The skies were a little overcast today but the mood was still wonderfully set with the extravagant décor and the new heating elements made the inside feel as warm as a summer’s day and she knew the reception tent was much the same. 

Howard was inside chatting away with Steve and Peter, casting quick glances to the entrance every few minutes, looking for her and smiling. She wondered if perhaps she could talk him into having their own wedding, or a reaffirmation at least, after all they had been through. Even if it was just something that they did on their own in Italy or with just Anthony and Pepper. They didn’t need big and grand. They had that day already. She much preferred the smaller, more intimate gathering her son had arranged. 

The reminder that she was at her only son’s wedding made her eyes water and she knew that by the end of the day her makeup would be a mess, whether it said it was water resistant or not. She never thought that she would make it to this day, Anthony too young and wild before the Hydra incident with no sign of slowing down anytime soon. If they had never been kidnapped, she wondered if she and Howard would have already passed naturally and she'd have missed it anyways. 

Now was not the time to wonder though. She was here now and it had all worked out in the end. She had her son, she had her husband, and though Pepper had been accepted into their family from the first moment they met, they finally got to make it official.

“You ready, Mom?” Anthony’s voice called out to her, breaking her trance on Howard to turn and greet him, only to have the tears flooding her eyes again. 

Her son was devastatingly handsome in his tailored black suit, even if he was covering his expressive eyes with those damn sunglasses that he seemed to have in every color of the rainbow. She gasped quietly and ran her hand up and down his arm lovingly. She had seen him in plenty of suits before of course, within the last year especially, but seeing him in his wedding attire struck her on a completely different level, reiterating to her brain that her only baby was really getting married.

“You look so handsome,” she finally was able to get out as she felt her throat clench. Anthony ducked his head with embarrassment like he always did when she complimented him and unsuccessfully held back a smile. 

“I just want you to know, son, that I am so proud of you. You make your mother so happy to be able to share this day with you. I love you,” she said, and leaned forward to place a gentle kiss to his cheek.

“Thanks, Mom,” he responded and pulled her in for a tight hug.

“You aren’t really going to wear those glasses the whole time though are you?” she whispered into his ear as they hugged and felt the rumble of his chest as he laughed beneath her.

Instead of answering he pulled away and offered her his arm. “Shall we?”

She linked her arm with his and let him lead her onto the white aisle runner and make their way to the front of the tent. The echoes of conversation began to quiet as they moved forward, Tony stopping off halfway down to place a kiss to the cheek of the famous Mama Rhodes and her daughter Jeannette. She smiled kindly to the woman that had kept her son going when she could not be there for him and made a note to share a drink with her before the night was over. As they reached the end of the aisle they stopped and Maria kissed both of Anthony’s cheeks this time. Howard was beside her then and shook hands with their son, a rare smile plastered to his face, and then Howard led her to sit at the piano bench while Anthony took his place.

“You look ravishing, darling,” Howard flirted and brought the back of her hand to his lips to kiss. 

“Play your cards right and you can do the ravishing tonight,” she flirted back with the most innocent expression she could muster. 

It wasn’t often that she flirted back in this manner but today was a day of joy and she couldn’t keep the smile off her face or the happiness from bursting out so why not live a little?

Howard just grinned and kissed her once more before taking his seat in the front row. If he was a little more red in the face than usual and cast her more longing glances, well it was a wedding day and they always brought the romantic out in even the most cynical of people. 

Finally she opened up her notes and placed the sheet music before her.

It was time for the wedding to start.

* * *

The room quieted completely as Tony's mother sat at the piano bench and played the introductory notes of _“Clare de Lune”_ signaling to the wedding party that it was time for the procession to begin. 

Tony watched with interest as Peter made his way down the aisle first, all his quiet confidence completely gone, instead a bashful smile plastered all over his face as he did his absolute best NOT to look at the silly faces that MJ was making at him from beside his Aunt May. Of course he was utterly failing at that though, laughing and walking faster to get to the end of the aisle without further incident. Tony nudged him with his elbow as he walked by to take his place, followed by Happy who was DEFINITELY trying not to look at May Parker in front of everyone and also absolutely failing, though Peter at least seemed oblivious, too caught up in making his own heart eyes. Tony knew that whatever was happening between both pairs wouldn’t be able to be kept a secret much longer with days like today.

Rhodey rounded out his wedding party, cutting a handsome, striking figure in his Air Force blues, all of his campaign medals gleaming on his chest, including a very non-regulated, silver War Machine helmet pin. 

"Maybe next time I'll have to marry you," Tony said, giving him a brief side hug.

Rhodey was used to his antics by now though and just smiled along. “You ready for this?” he asked quietly as the bridal procession began, and Pepper's old roommate Renee made her way down the aisle.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he whispered back, and smiled as Natasha came down the aisle next and winked at him as she took her place. “Check this out,” he said, drawing Rhodey’s attention back to the entrance of the tent as the Maid of Honor took her place. 

“Is this the mysterious ring bearer?” Rhodey whispered.

“I’ll kill him if I carried that ring around for nine years and he drops it or something,” Happy mumbled under his breath.

“You know who it is?” Rhodey asked him and Happy just nodded gravely.

It took a few beats of the music for the mysterious ring bearer to appear but when he finally peaked his head in and began making his way slowly down the aisle, it was enough to draw laughs from the Avengers and gasps from Pepper’s family who wasn’t quite used to Tony’s other family. 

DUM-E very slowly made his way down the aisle, a bow tie hanging around the neck of his arm, and a soft white pillow with the rings tied to it delicately grasped in his claw. The bot beeped soft and curiously as he observed all of the new faces around him but was very careful not to be distracted from his Very Important mission that he had practiced at least a hundred times. 

Tony smiled encouragingly at the bot and DUM-E pushed forward to reach him a little faster than they had practiced the night before, but Tony was proud and greeted his oldest creation with kind words and soft pats down his arm. 

“You’re doing a great job, buddy. I knew you could do this.”

DUM-E beeped affectionately and turned to stand at the end of the line of groomsman, accepting a soft pat from Rhodey and beeping obnoxiously at Happy, swinging his arm away from the man so that he couldn’t take away his Very Important mission for himself. Happy just rolled his eyes and let Peter lead the bot to his place. 

Finally it was time for the flower girls. Lila practically skipped down the aisle, braids bouncing in her hair as she went and distributed the flowers just as she had been shown, with little tosses, waving as she went by her mother and grandmother. Directly behind her, Sherri Potts pulled the small wagon with Morgan sitting inside, the entire outside of which was decorated in the flowers that Pepper had chosen and she wore the same matching blue dress as Lila. Everyone grinned and made noises at the girls as they made their way to the end. Then Lila couldn’t help herself and broke away, wrapping herself around her Uncle Tony’s waist and then her Uncle Jim’s. 

“Great job squirt,” Tony said and plucked the glasses off of his face and placed them on hers, earning him a giggle as she pushed them up the bridge of her nose to sit more comfortably on her face as she took her seat. 

Sherri brought Morgan over to him too and he kissed her chubby little cheeks as well before they also sat down. 

_“Clare de Lune”_ ended after that and there was a brief silence as his mother switched music sheets and began to play _“Canon in D Major.”_ Suddenly everyone was on their feet, excited murmurings filling the air as they all waited for the bride.

Tony’s heart began beating so hard in his chest he felt like it was going to explode as he watched for movement at the end of the aisle. If he hadn’t already had the shrapnel removed from his heart and the arc with it, he could have sworn that the arc reactor was malfunctioning.

This was it. This was the moment that he had been waiting nearly a decade of his life for. The day he would see his Pepper walking down the aisle to be joined with him forever. He felt a steadying hand on his shoulder and turned to see Rhodey keeping him present and solid just like he had always done, the constant grounding force in his life. 

When he looked back she was there. 

Pepper had always been beautiful. From that first day she burst into his office, face flushed and angry, to the day she stood screaming at him on a rooftop until they kissed, and even when she laid in a hospital bed sweaty and exhausted from giving birth to their daughter. It didn’t matter to him. She was always the most exquisite woman he had ever laid eyes on and today was no different. If anything she was even more beautiful than she had ever been, her hair left down and slightly curled, the strawberry tendrils lighting up like a flame in the backdrop of the early afternoon sun. 

Then his brain processed her dress. 

She was wearing **_it._ **

The dress that had sucker punched him all those years ago at the Disney Concert Hall for the Firefighter’s ball. The backless wonder. The dress he desperately tried to recreate for the night that he proposed. 

He could feel his brain short circuiting, his mouth hanging open like a dog. 

Pepper laughed, _actually_ laughed at him, like she didn't know what she was doing to him as she held onto her father’s arm and made her way down the aisle like a literal goddess whose feet he would happily spend all of his days worshipping. 

Tony barely even registered as Mike and Pepper finally came to a stop at the end of the aisle and his mother finished the song. He only had eyes for Pepper and he was slightly less horrified at the tears that had formed in his eyes than he thought he would be, maybe because there were tears in Pepper’s eyes too. 

“Who gives Virginia to be married to Anthony on this day?” their officiant asked, stepping forward in front of the group. 

Mike grasped Pepper’s hand tightly in his, though he never hesitated. “Her mother and I do,” he said in the same strong, quiet voice that Tony had become used to over the years. The older man turned to his daughter and hugged her to him and kissed her cheek gently, whispering something in her ear that Tony couldn’t quite make out. He turned back to Tony with an appraising eye, long enough to make him squirm in his place before extending his hand.

“Tony,” he said and Tony reached out to shake his hand, in half shock that Mike had used his first name for the first time since he had known him. The older man’s grip was still razor strong, his palm as rough from labor as Tony’s was with his engineering. 

“Mike,” he acknowledged back. This was an old dance of theirs and Tony sure as hell wasn’t going to let the man intimidate him on his wedding day, even if he was still slightly terrifying to deal with. 

“Take care of her.”

“You know I will, sir.”

Mike nodded and gave Pepper’s hand over to him, all posturing set aside. “Morgan,” he nodded to the officiant with a small grin. 

“Michael,” the man smiled back at his brother before he finally took his seat. Then Pepper’s eccentric Uncle who had only just gotten his license to officiate three days earlier clapped his hands. “Alright, let's get these crazy kids married, shall we?”

Tony had never been more thankful that they had decided against writing their own vows than that day because there was no way in hell he would have remembered what he wanted to say or even been able to read it off of a slip of paper. His brain had lost all higher function capabilities, only registering he and Pepper and not a single thing around them. 

Not Morgan fussing lightly that her parents were five feet away from her and not paying her a lick of attention, or the shutter from the camera of the photographer they hired. Not the tears and sniffles that had overtaken Happy, or the more stoic tears that Rhodey casually shed. Not the way that his mother reclaimed her seat in the front row, holding herself as close to his father as she could be as he dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. He completely missed the small smile of approval that he would have used to fuel every future interaction with his new father in law. 

He couldn’t even focus on Uncle Morgan’s booming voice as he spoke briefly about love and all the wonderful things it entailed. Only a soft nudge from Rhodey reminded him that he had to repeat his vows back after they were read allowed. 

Pepper didn’t seem to mind, similarly distracted.

“I take it you like the dress?” she whispered and he almost missed it.

“Of course I do. You’re amazing,” he whispered back with wonderment that this woman had actually chosen him, standing here beside him as dazed as he was. 

It was like a dream or an outer body experience. Women like this didn’t love men like Tony Stark...and yet this one did. 

They exchanged rings without any trouble, despite what Happy feared of DUM-E’s ring holding expertise and before they knew it, it was _time_.

“By the powers invested in me by the state of New York and the wonderful people with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, that’s a real place, I dare you to look it up, I now pronounce thee husband and wife. Anthony, you may kiss your bride. Make it a good one, kid, none of this peck on the cheek stuff,” Uncle Morgan ribbed. 

The audience all laughed but Tony’s focus was on Pepper’s lips as he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist and settled on the small of her back. Pepper moved forward just as eager, their lips crashing together like that very first one so many years ago, her arms going around his neck and digging through his hair. 

The wolf-whistles and hollers that ensued were enough to break them both into laughter but not to relinquish their hold on each other.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Uncle Morgan hooted. “Superheroes and casual citizens alike, may I present to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Stark.”

* * *

“Your dad still seems a little hostile,” Tony said later as he and Pepper danced around the reception area for their first dance as a couple. He glanced over Pepper’s shoulder every time they circled near her parents table to check their reactions which hadn’t changed from Pepper’s mother smiling brightly and Mike’s stand look of constipation. He wasn’t being looked at with abject hatred like he had all those years ago when they first met so he’d call that a win at least.

“Well, whatever goodwill you earned with him the last time we visited was instantly invalidated when you knocked me up before marrying me.”

“I told you we should have got married before Morgan was born and passed her off as a honeymoon baby. Now I’m on your father’s shit list forever.”

Pepper just laughed, the same delirious smile she had been wearing all day still spread across her features even as she scrunched up her eyes and nose. “Honey, you were already on his shit list forever. Just a little higher up than you are now. Now you’re somewhere between telemarketers and Satan.”

“That’s just hurtful and maybe only slightly accurate.”

“It’s hard for him,” she offered instead.

“We really oughta set him and Howard up for a bowling night together or something to not discuss all of their repressed feelings,” Tony teased back. 

“What makes you so sure that wouldn’t just end up in disaster when they both team up against you?” she fired back.

“Oh god you’re right.” 

He pulled back and spun her in a little circle before pulling her back in tightly against him. 

“I love you more than anything, you know?”

Pepper’s smile softened. “I know. I love you too. I take it you were happy to see the dress?”

“Happy to see the dress is an understatement, you know what this dress does to me,” he said and brought his lips close to her ear, his voice dropping down into a sultry, honey tone. “I love getting you out of it even more.”

“You’ll have your chance later.”

“How much later?”

“Depends how fast we can slip away without being noticed,” she whispered back in her own sultry tone. 

“Is that a challenge Mrs. Stark?”

“If you want it to be.”

Their song finally came to an end and their dancing along with it, Tony leaning forward to capture her lips in his, as their audience of guests clapped along politely. 

“Meet back at the house in ten minutes?” he asked hopefully as the lights went up and the music changed, other couples crowding out onto the small dance floor for their own time to shine.

“You are incorrigible.”

“As you so often remind me. I didn’t hear a no?” he said looking at her from beneath raised eyebrows. 

Pepper scoffed and pulled away from him to go mingle with their guests but from the tiny glances she sent his way he knew that she was in agreement with his plan. All he had to do was slip away…

He walked back over towards his and Pepper’s seats at the middle of the long reception table, snagging another glass of champagne from a tray that was being held by U. The bot was doing exceptionally well with his concentration, only a minimal amount of the drink sloshing around on his tray. He hesitated only slightly before grabbing a second drink. It would be his fourth of the night but it was his wedding day damn it and he could get a little tipsy if he wanted to. 

He flopped down into his chair and nudged Rhodey from where he sat eating cake and snorting at Happy trying to lead everyone in performing the “Cha-Cha Slide.”

“This is terrible,” Rhodey said and leaned back against Tony’s shoulder, motioning to the dance floor with his fork. “Even with instructions Happy still has no rhythm.”

“Hm. Maybe it’s time for you to get out there and show them how it’s done.”

“I would have to be much drunker.”

Tony slid his extra glass of champagne over to Rhodey. “Drink up, it’s a wedding party. If you can’t get drunk and make a fool of yourself on the dance floor then what even is the point?”

“Only because I already finished my speech,” he answered, accepting the glass with a smile.

As best man Rhodey had been entrusted to deliver the most embarrassing and yet loving speech dedicated to his best friend, and it had definitely been heavy on the embarrassing, reminiscing about nearly every shenanigan he had ever got up to at MIT with only slightly horrified faces from both of their mothers and Howard ducking behind his hand to pretend he didn’t find any of it humorous. Of course then he had brought up how everything had started changing the day that Tony called him while he was stationed at Ramstein in Germany at two in the morning, ranting and raving about this crazy woman from accounting that had burst through his office doors and pepper sprayed Happy just so she could personally yell at Tony. 

“He said, ‘I think I’m in love,’” Rhodey spoke, pausing for the laughs from the crowd, “and nothing was ever the same again, even though it would take another decade for these idiots to see what had been there from the very start. True love.”

Tony had laughed and smiled bigger than ever before, the vague memory floating to the forefront of his mind even though in those days he was perpetually drunk whenever he called Rhodey no matter what time it was where he was stationed. Then his friend had to get sappy and emotional as he explained how all that he had ever wanted was for Tony to find someone or something to settle him down and calm the restless energy that had so often turned self destructive, and of course how everything changed after Afghanistan. Suddenly there were tears not from laughter but from the overwhelming relief and happiness that was radiating from his best man.

Truly it had been a speech for the ages and Tony was so glad that he had the entire thing recorded thanks to Friday. 

“So, hey, I’m gonna go slip inside the house for a few minutes, can you cover for me?”

Rhodey turned around to face his friend with an incredulous look on his face. “Uh huh. Everything okay?” he asked knowingly. 

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Just need to take a little breather.”

“A breather?”

“Yeah, just check on everything, make sure the world isn’t ending or anything.”

“Of course. Very diligent,” Rhodey nodded.

“Sometimes it’s a curse being Earth’s best defender,” Tony shrugged and spilled a little champagne on his shirt when he did. Definitely tipsy.

This time Rhodey turned around fully, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. “I’m sorry, Earth’s best what?”

“Best defender, you know? I didn’t ask for the title, it was bestowed upon me. Heavy is the head that wears the crown and what not,” Tony waved him off.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that?”

“That’s what they tell me.”

“Idiot,” Rhodey mumbled but wasn’t entirely able to hide his grin as he ate another bite of cake. 

“I’m your idiot though,” Tony teased and placed an exaggerated kiss on Rhodey’s forehead as he stood up and buttoned his waist coat.

“Tell Pepper I said hello,” Rhodey called out.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he yelled back over the music as he began making his way across the tent. He pulled out the pocket watch and confirmed he still had a couple of minutes before his rendezvous and drained the contents of his glass, placing the empty flute onto DUM-E’s tray where he was collecting them from the tables.

“You and U are doing great DUM-E. Keep it up and keep the champagne flowing.”

DUM-E whirred in acknowledgement and continued doing his job, spinning around carefully and heading back for the bar.

That was of course when he spotted Peter standing at the edge of the tent, watching longingly as his crush danced along with May, Lila and the others. Tony sighed and made a quick detour to him. 

“Hey kid, what are you doing on the sidelines like you’re one of the nerds from Sixteen Candles?”

Peter straightened up from his slouch and defensively crossed his arms. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Look I know John Hughes films have become an entire aesthetic at this point but this isn’t the character you want to live out kid. Get out there and ask Michelle to dance. I guarantee you that she has been waiting for you to ask her to.”

“I don’t know how to dance really, though,” Peter reluctantly admitted, realizing there was no longer any point in denying his feelings. 

“Neither did the nerd but that didn’t diminish his confidence at all. There’s nothing to it. You practiced with your Aunt before didn’t you?”

“Yeah, but that was like a year ago and if you remember I never exactly got to the dancing portion because of the Vulture.”

“Yeah, that was some bad timing,” Tony lamented. “Do you trust me kid?”

Peter didn’t even have to think about it. “Of course I do.”

“Oh, good!” Tony said and grabbed Peter by the arm and led him out onto the dance floor. This raised some laughs and questioning looks from the other guests and dancers around them but Tony paid them no mind. He was having a Teachable Moment.™ “Okay no whoever leads, you hold the other person’s waist like so, and do not go below that line ever because I know you were raised better than that. Then hold their other hand in yours and you just kind of sway,” he demonstrated.

Peter ducked his head down trying to keep the nervous laughter at bay as May sent him a knowing smile from their table. 

“See there ya go, you’ve got this. Nothing to it is there? Just don’t step on her foot and you’re golden kid,” Tony said, letting Peter lead him around.

“Thanks Mr. Stark,” Peter spoke shyly.

“Kid, what is it going to take to get you to call me Tony?”

“Nothing short of a worldwide disaster I’m sure.”

Tony just rolled his eyes and then grinned as he saw how perfectly they were now positioned. “Oh, hey would you look at that?” Tony said maneuvering them towards where MJ was watching them, her eyes shining with humor.

Peter’s eyes grew wide. “Mr. Stark, no!” he said halfheartedly pulling against his mentor, not even bothering to use any of his super strength. 

“You should have tried calling me, Tony,” he teased and came to a stop in front of MJ. “Hey Michelle right?” he asked the other teen and she nodded. “ Look this kid is an absolute dance machine, alas being the groom of this shindig, my dance card seems to be filled up. Think you could take him off of my hands for a bit?”

MJ looked from him to Peter with a great deal of skepticism and even though they all knew exactly what was really happening here, she surprised Peter by nodding her head. 

“That would be cool.”

“It would?” Peter’s jaw practically dropped and Tony had to nudge the kid to get it together. “Oh, um, I mean right.” He cleared his throat and held his hand out to MJ. “MJ would you share this dance with me?”

She rolled her eyes. “I said I would. I'm leading though, nerd,” she said without any actual bite, reminding Tony of Pepper. 

“Aw, young love. I’ll leave you to it, I need to get some air,” he said hurrying away from the dance floor and out of the reception tent, into the cool night air. 

The December evening was in full swing, the earlier overcast skies finally cleared away and allowed the stars to come out and shine. The temperature had dropped too and it was a testament to Stark technology that he hadn’t been able to feel the difference at all until he stepped outside from under the twinkle lights and set up inside. His breath came out in little puffs in front of his face as he made his way up to the main house, a grin tugging at his lips, wondering if Pepper was already waiting for him.

He didn’t have to wonder very long, as soon as he hit the steps leading up to the cabin porch he was suddenly being tugged forward, out of view of the porch light, her warm body pressed up against his as she brought him in for a kiss. His hands immediately fell below the waistline threshold he’d just advised his mentee to never cross but this was his  _ wife _ and she encouraged his exploration as he crowded her back up against the wall.

“Maybe take this inside? It’s freezing,” Pepper laughed as she breathlessly pulled away from Tony, her head thudding back against the wall. 

“Definitely. Do I need to carry you across the threshold?”

“Without a doubt,” she smiled.

He leaned back in to kiss her again when the front door opened, light from the inside spilling out onto the porch and a laughing and disheveled Howard and Maria soon following. 

“What the hell??” Tony said and the other couple jumped apart like they’d been burned. 

“Hey, Tony,” his father greeted him casually. His mother had the decency to look abashed and it didn’t take Tony long to connect the dots.

“Oh my god, what am I running around here a harem? Did you just--in  _ my _ house???” Pepper slapped at his arm but it was clear that she was finding more humor in the situation than he could muster at the moment.

“I’m old, not dead, son. Not anymore at least,” Howard smiled, clearly proud of the corny joke.

“In  _ my _ house?!” was all Tony could stutter out.

Howard rolled his eyes. “In the room you gave us in your house.”

“I also gave you your own house a five minute walk that way,” Tony directed his outstretched hand towards the cottage.

“And your mother gave you life, what about it?”

“Where is Morgan???”

His mother finally spoke up. “With Mama Rhodes and Jeannette. They were more than happy to look after her for a bit.”

Tony looked like he was going to start another argument but Pepper dutifully intervened. 

“I’m sure they were. They don’t get to spend nearly enough time out here to visit.”

“Wait,” Howard said, also connecting the pieces. “what were  _ you  _ doing here?”

“Personal, private business,” Tony responded childishly.

“Uh huh. Well, I’d say that is our cue to go then. Should we expect you back at all this evening?” Howard laughed, actually laughed like this was the greatest joke in the world. 

“We’ll be back,” Pepper said silencing her husband and dragging him through the front door. 

“Goodnight, Tony,” Howard called before they shut the door, Maria’s brief murmuring of, “Howard don’t be an ass,” the last thing they heard before the door was shut completely.

As soon as it was Pepper turned to look at Tony trying and failing to suppress the laughter that was shaking her chest. Tony tried his best to be mad but then he too was laughing at the absurdity of the situation. 

“I have not had nearly enough to drink tonight to deal with that level of trauma,” Tony huffed, as his and Pepper’s laughs slowly subsided.

“That’s a good thing though, because you mentioned something about carrying me across a threshold and I’m not certain you could do that successfully with anymore to drink,” she said, leaning forward and pulling at his tie.

“I have designed precision rockets on three day whiskey benders, I think I can carry my wife after a couple glasses of champagne.”

“Well, then,” she said leaning in to kiss him once more. “Lead the way Mr. Stark.”

“After you, Mrs. Stark,” he said and gently swept her off her feet and into his arms. He climbed the stairs to their bedroom and carried his wife across the threshold of their bedroom without a single misstep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you skipped the above notes - 
> 
> STOP NOW IF YOU WANT TO LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!! If you would like to subject yourself to further cliffhangers, continue to Chapter 34. :D
> 
> Also, you may start sending me story ideas and prompts for anything that you would like to see in the future from this verse! Send them to me on tumblr and follow to stay up to date or subscribe to the series tag!   
> [12-16-91-stark](https://12-16-91-stark.tumblr.com/)


	34. The End?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so...we transition into the next phase...

“We should probably get back to the reception at some point,” Pepper mumbled into where she was snuggled in against Tony’s bare chest.

Tony brought his hand up to continue his ministrations, running his fingers through her hair. He made a hum of acknowledgement to her statement but otherwise made no further move to get up out of the warm bed.

Pepper sighed and snuggled in further, contradicting her own words. “We should go back out there.”

“Why? It’s our wedding, we’re expected to ditch the party early anyways.”

“Yeah but we were supposed to at least say goodbye first. I mean I have my parents out there, and there’s Mama Rhodes…”

“I don’t think that anyone is really going to mind all that much. I’m sure they’ve all probably already guessed exactly where we’ve slinked off to and are indulging themselves in the free cake and booze while it lasts.”

“Yeah, but we didn’t say goodnight to Morgan,” she said wistfully. Being a parent could be so absolutely maddening when sometimes all you wanted was to have five minutes away from your kid and then when you actually were granted that break all you could do was think about how much you missed them. 

This time she could hear the hesitation in Tony’s voice. “She’ll be okay for one night.”

“Yeah but we leave in the morning for our honeymoon…”

“This is good practice for while we’re away. She’s got both of our parents with her, all of her uncles and our friends,” his voice sounded less sure with each word that he forced from his mouth.

Pepper smiled knowingly against him, mentally beginning the countdown until Tony inevitably cracked. She got all the way down to the count of two before he was gently pushing her off of him and sitting up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

“You’re right, it would be rude to just leave without a single word,” he snatched up his boxer briefs and trousers and hastily began pulling them back on. “Lets go do another lap around the party, eat some more cake, have another drink and say bon voyage and all that, then in the morning it’s just you, me and a plane ride to Venice,” he winked. 

Pepper laughed softly and followed his lead, getting back into her dress and going to the bathroom to freshen up her hair and makeup.

“How do I look?” she asked him, when she finished.

“You mean do you look thoroughly debauched anymore?”

“Something like that,” she said and playfully nudged him, but he caught her hand in his and pulled her close to him, resting his forehead against hers.

“Mrs. Stark, you look positively radiant.”

She allowed herself to lean back against him, reveling in the way it felt to have his arms wrapped around her. He tilted his head ever so slightly and pressed a soft kiss to the bridge of her nose.

“Shall we?” 

“We shall,” she grinned and followed him back down the stairs. 

They hadn’t been back outside in the chilly December air for more than a minute when she felt it. All the hair on her arms and the back of her neck was suddenly standing on its ends and it felt like those summer night heat storms she grew up with in the midwest, when the air was practically vibrating with electricity. She turned to see if Tony felt it too, and he evidently did but he was smiling and that alleviated some of her worries. 

“I guess Thor didn’t want to miss the party after all,” he said pointing to the first flash of rainbow light in the air as it approached, “I hope he brought some Asgardian booze. Maybe we can see if that will get Steve drunk.”

The static shock feeling only increased the closer the light came towards the house until finally the light ended in their front yard with a loud crash, like a meteor into the earth, only when the dust cleared, Thor was not standing there, only a crater of scorched earth.

“Is he hurt?!” Tony asked, and immediately ran off the porch and to the smoking crater. 

The commotion brought the attention of the other guests, particularly the other Avengers as she raced after Tony and they all followed.

“Tony…” she called as she came up behind him only to gasp. 

Gasping and heaving in the crater was a beat up and tattered man that they hadn’t seen in nearly two years now. His eyes were wild as he looked all around, the other Avengers circling around as the last bit of green disappeared from his neck. 

Tony’s eyes were wide and his mouth agape as he crouched down next to him. “Bruce???”

Bruce just gasped and inhaled a couple more deep breaths, trying to calm his heaving chest. Tony cautiously reached out and placed a grounding hand upon his shoulder then glanced back at Pepper and the others with a haunted look. The same one he used to unknowingly give her just after the Ultron debacle. The one that had been present since he flew that nuke into space and destroyed an alien army. 

Pepper felt her stomach churn and her heart clinch, her mind already coming to terms with the fact that there was probably no way they were going to make that plane to Venice now.

“T-tony,” Bruce gasped, grabbing him by the shirt to turn his attention back around.

“Can we get him some water, please?” Tony yelled behind him and someone brought him a water bottle and he helped sit Bruce up and drink from it.

Howard came up to stand beside her, giving her arm an encouraging squeeze as he took in the scene. Maria stood at the edge of the tent with Morgan held tightly in her arms. 

“Tony,” Bruce began again, his voice hoarse from disuse and obvious abuse while in his Hulk form.

“Where have you been, Bruce? I looked everywhere for you…”

Bruce knocked the water bottle away and clutched at Tony’s shirt again, his dirty hands leaving streaks across the white fabric in his obvious desperation. “We have to run. Now.”

“Run? Bruce you’re not making any sense…”

“TONY!” he yelled, his voice merging with the Hulk’s for one terrifying moment, until he took a shuddering breath and continued. “Thanos is coming,” he cried out desperately and then his grip slackened and his entire body went limp as he slowly faded into unconsciousness, having finally relayed the desperate message he had been carrying across the universe. 

Pepper felt her heart stop, knowing that this one moment was suddenly going to change  _ everything _ . 


End file.
